It may Just Happen
by NarutoNovels
Summary: When one kiss can change everything. But perfection never stays unfaltered for long when your past comes back to haunt you. SasuNaru.
1. Obituaries and Orange Juice

**Story: It may Just Happen.**

**Anime: Naruto**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Not one tiny bit. Don't think differently.**

**BUT that doesn't mean I won't stop bugging M.Kishimoto till he at least lets me own Shikamaru, or even Kakashi. I'm not fussy.**

**Pairings: SasuNaru, KibaHina, SakuLee, NejiGaar. Maybe KakaIru in the future. If you're lucky. :)**

**Warnings: Angst. BoyxBoy. Language. Death. Murderers. Shitty writing. Lack of inspiration for future chapters.**

**First chapter of my multi-chapter fic. It took me a while to complete this and I made lots of changes, but I hope its good enough now. If you find mistakes or stuff, just review and tell me so I can fix it.**

"**Speech"**

_**Thoughts**_

"_**Voice on phone"**_

'_**Ring Tone'**_

**Hope you enjoy and review.**

**LOVELOVELOVE.**

* * *

Sasuke tore his gaze away from the television, if only for a moment, to answer Naruto's question. 

"Water will be fine thanks dobe."

Naruto's loud voice was heard from the kitchen, one room away, "Coming right up teme."

Sasuke inwardly chuckled at their strange way of showing friendship. He readjusted his position on the couch, popping his stiff joints loudly, while stretching his long slender legs which were positioned gracefully on the length of the sofa. He brushed one hand through sleek black hair before flicking over the channel to a horror movie.

Naruto appeared through the doorway of the sitting room, a glass in one hand, a bowl of steaming ramen in the other. "Your water, Uchiha. On ice." He winked menacingly.

The raven let a smirk play on his thin lips as he took the drink and murmured quick thanks. Naruto had on tight fitted dark jeans which hung low on his hips, with a snugly fitted black t-shirt on the top half-showing a sliver of tan skin at his waist.

His blonde hair was shaggy and unruly, but perfectly framing sharp cheekbones and dazzling blue eyes.

"Hey teme, move up so I can sit."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "No."

"What do you mean no?!" The blonde had already put aside his noodles and was ready to lunge at the Uchiha. "Move now!"

"No. Make me."

Sasuke prepared himself, and as Naruto flew forwards, he held him back by the shoulders with ease, as he twisted his arms behind his back and threw him to the floor – sitting on his back.

"Ehhhhh! No fair." Naruto pouted as he attempted to lash out of Sasuke's grip, but there was no progress.

The dark haired boy leant forwards to his ear, still gripping tightly onto the others arms. Breathing heavily, he said softly "There's no point Naruto, you know I'm always going to be better than you. Just accept it."

He huffed before a smirk was visible, "You just couldn't wait till you had a chance to get on top of me, eh?"

Sasuke just leant closer and replied, "Don't flatter yourself Uzumaki, you do nothing for me." Before ruffling the blonde's hair abit and sitting back down on the sofa.

Naruto huffed abit more and stood up, smoothing the creases in his t-shirt before picking up his ramen again. "Ramen.Ramen.Ramen.Ramen." he chanted as he sat down beside Sasuke - slurping the noodles. The raven just rolled his eyes and turned up the television-shrieks blasting out of the speakers.

He didn't feel the slightest bit guilty in being so rude in Naruto's house. As neither of them had parents, they would spend most of their time at each others houses.

This was like a second home to Sasuke.

"Yo Sasuke?"

"Hn?" Not once did his eyes leave the TV screen.

"You got yourself a boyfriend yet?" Naruto asked, in between mouthfuls of noodles.

"No."

"Are you even looking?"

"No. Why?"

"Just curious."

Sasuke continued watching the gruesome scenes of the horror film before Naruto broke the silence again.

"That's probably why you're so grouchy." The blonde pondered on this, one finger on his chin.

The raven turned his head, so deep onyx eyes met cerulean ones.

"Eh?"

"It's 'cause you haven't had a good fuck in a while." Naruto grinned, as if he was proud he had worked it out.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't think about my sex life, thanks." Sasuke's tone stayed flat and he turned his attention back to the TV – turning it up.

* * *

Light shone in through open blinds, making patterns on the kitchen counter with sunlight. Sasuke sat quietly at the counter, slowly stirring his coffee – drifting into a daydream. 

The kitchen was a spacious room, the pale walls were lined with cabinets and shelves, (mainly full of instant ramen) and a large marble-topped table sat in the centre. Great, big windows let the morning sunlight pour through its glass and spread throughout the open space like water.

Even at the early hour, the raven was fully dressed. He had on his favourite skin tight black jeans and a light blue t-shirt, which fitted perfectly – showing off his slim physique. He ran a hand through immaculate black hair, brushing his glossy bangs out of dark eyes. In the early daylight, his hair held a blue tinge to it.

There was a sudden clutter of footsteps and Sasuke rolled his eyes, knowing what to expect. He took another sip of coffee, just as Naruto stumbled down the stairs, almost missing the bottom step. He emerged into the kitchen, eyes still half closed with sleep. He really wasn't a morning person.

The blonde only wore a pair of dark blue boxers, revealing tight, taught muscles rippling through tanned skin. His boxers were loose hanging on his hips while his usually messy hair was out of control. It was sticking out in all directions.

The blonde fell into a chair at the counter and his head dropped down onto the table, making Sasuke shake his head and smirk at his friend's stupidity.

"Morning, dobe."

Naruto just shook his head from its position the marble, and said, "No…no. Too early…."

The dark haired boy took another sip of his fragrant coffee before getting up to make another cup for his half asleep friend – thinking it might wake him up.

Seeing as Sasuke spent almost as much time –maybe more- at Naruto's house, they had set up a spare room where he would sleep. Most of the raven's clothes were here anyway and it would just be a hassle to go back and forth.

Naruto's breathing deepened and his mouth hung open, indicating that he had fallen back to sleep.

'_You've got this new head filled up wi-' (1)_

Sasuke swiftly retrieved the blonde's mobile from its place by the kettle, before flipping it open and holding it to his ear.

"What do you want?"

"_Oh that's nice of you Uchiha. I'm good, how about you?" _Kiba's cheerful voice at the other end of the phone dripped with sarcasm.

"What is it Inuzuka?" The raven narrowed his eyes at the early morning call.

"_Why are you even answering Naruto's phone? What have you done to him?! You've killed him, haven't you?!"_

There was an evident sigh from Sasuke's side.

"_OMG YOU FAG! YOU _HAVE_ KILLED HIM HAVEN'T YOU?!"_

Sasuke just ran a pale hand through dark hair and rolled his eyes at all of his idiotic friends.

"Kiba what is it? Naruto's fallen asleep on the kitchen counter, he can't talk."

"_Fine. Just wanted to know if you guys were up for going to the pub tonight? Us and the rest of the gang will be there. What do you say?"_

"Fine. What time?"

"Please_, don't overdo the enthusiasm. Meet us at 8:30. You better be there you big faggot!"_

The raven rolled his eyes once again and moved the device away from his ear.

"Fucker."

There was an evident _"I HEARD THAT!", _before Sasuke flipped the phone shut again.

There was a glint in the raven's eyes as a smirk flashed on his lips. He was conjuring up a plan.

He whistled a random tune while opening the fridge door and fishing out the orange juice. Slowly he poured the chilled drink into a tall glass – filling it to the brim. Sasuke kept stealing glances at the blonde, making sure he was still asleep. If the idiot knew he was whistling his reputation for being a cold bastard would be ruined.

With agile movements, Sasuke stepped towards Naruto – glass in hand. In one swift movement, he upturned its contents onto the blonde's head. Liquid dripped from his hair and onto his neck and bare back.

Naruto's eyes shot open, bugging out of his face, and he propelled out of his seat – shouting curses at the top of his voice, "WHATTHEFUCKINGHELL!JESUSCHRIST!BLOODYFUCK!AAAARRGH!" He was definitely awake now, Sasuke grinned. _Mission accomplished._

The blonde stood in front of the raven, chest soaked in juiced, hair sticky and wet. He was fuming, but Sasuke continued to smirk.

"What the fuck did you do that for?!" Naruto's words were slow and laced with pure malice.

"Just wanted to wake you up, that's all. Besides, I thought you liked juice with your breakfast?" he couldn't help but grin as Naruto's eyes twitched with annoyance.

"I'm going to go have a shower. Clean this up." And with that, he stormed up the stairs – stomping on each individual step.

The raven stood smirking, still clutching the empty glass in one hand.

Ten minutes later, when the kitchen was spotless and gleaming once again, Naruto came trotting into the living room – only a towel around his waist.

Sasuke was sitting quietly on the leather sofa, one leg over the other and a newspaper in hand.

The blonde huffed some more, catching the other boy's attention.

"You like parading around half dressed, don't you?" he said, not evening looking up.

Naruto placed his hands on tan hips and narrowed his eyes, "This is my house teme." And as quickly Naruto had gotten into the foul mood, the mood lifted, into one where the blonde's eyes twinkled and his lips held a slight smirk.

"It's not my fault if my gorgeous body sets off gay alarm bells in your head." He pouted and raised his eyebrows in a superficial way.

Sasuke sighed and looked up from under the pages of the newspaper and sighted Naruto standing in the doorway, hands on hips and drops of water slowly trickling down his bare chest.

Ok, so maybe Naruto was half right. He was definitely gorgeous and Sasuke had seen him naked way too many times to count, but he had never thought of him in that way. It would just be weird. _Best friends don't do that sort of thing._

"You, Uchiha, should be glad I'm not one to hold grudges!"

Sasuke was snapped back to reality and only half heard what the blonde was saying. He nodded lightly and looked back down to the obituaries he was reading.

A thought crossed the raven's mind, "Hey Naruto?"

"Yeah? What is it?" he was now shaking his hair like a wet dog, trying to get rid of the water.

"You know what you asked me last night?" Naruto nodded in reply, cocking his head to the side.

"Well, what about you? Got your eyes on any girls?"

The blonde stopped drenching everything in his eyesight and pondered on the question.

"Hhm. Come to think of it, no."

"Really? I thought you liked Sakura, and it's not like you, to not be hunting down some air headed chick."

"I _did_ like Sakura, but I don't know, I just don't dig her like that anymore. Besides, she spends all of her time sticking to you like a bad smell; she doesn't even know I exist." Sasuke grimaced.

"Che. Girls are troublesome. I don't know how you can stand all of that giggling and shrieking." He shuddered at the thought.

Naruto failed to suppress a laugh. "You kill me, Uchiha." (2)

"Glad to know." He even let a faint smile pass his usually sneering lips.

An awkward silence followed and Sasuke looked up and frowned at the sight of Naruto looking slightly distressed and in deep thought. Drops of water continued to fall from his shaggy mop of hair. Albeit, smaller drops of water.

"What's wrong teme?" The tone Sasuke used was soft and careful. He wasn't sure what had caused the sudden mood change, and really didn't want to tread in it thoughtlessly.

Naruto lifted his head and met the raven's gaze. Deep pools of blue met deeps pools of charcoal.

"I don't know Sasuke. It just made me think. Like, _really_ think. What you asked me made me realise something." Sasuke stayed quiet giving Naruto a chance to carry on and explain himself.

"I'm lonely."

The raven snapped his head up sharp. Was he hearing correctly? _Naruto, lonely? The most popular, likeable guy I've ever come across, lonely._ Naruto would always be at the centre of friendship groups and nearly everyone he met would take a liking to him. Even if his loud habits meant it would take a while.

Before Sasuke had a chance to get a word in, the blonde sighed and continued.

"You might not think so, but it's true. Ever since…that incident" The raven knew what he was referring to. "I feel lonely. I just want someone to be able to share my burdens with. Someone that will take some of the pressure off and make me feel wanted."

Naruto sighed again. Deep breathes escaped his pink lips. He dropped down onto the sofa beside Sasuke – not bothering to hold onto his towel which nearly fell off in the process. There was a faraway look in his eyes – like he was really thinking.

"Dobe. You still have me."

Naruto smiled and turned to face his best friend. "Yeah. You're right. I do. Thanks bastard."

"No problem, and remember I'm not going anywhere, so you could always share your burdens with me."

"Mhm. Yeah, I guess I could." Naruto's reply was half-hearted and Sasuke couldn't help but feel a little helpless.

The blonde's eyebrows were furrowed together and a mixture of thought and distaste were painted onto his face.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" The blonde came back to reality with the feel of Sasuke's hands massaging his neck and shoulders.

"Calm down dobe. I'm not going to molest you. You just looked all tense and worked up." His hands worked over the muscles in Naruto's back, gliding over smooth, tanned skin.

Eventually the blonde relaxed into his friend's touch and even let a moan escape his lips as Sasuke massaged a particular tense section on his shoulders.

"Mhm. You're pretty good at this teme."

"Hey! Don't go all homo on me now." Naruto giggled.

"Shall I let you in on a secret?" His eyes were half closed and his arms were loose at his sides.

"Sure. Knock yourself out." Sasuke said.

"Well…I'm not as straight as you think I am…"

"Eh? What do you mean by that? You're by far the straightest guy I know."

"I've had a boyfriend before. Before w-"

Sasuke hands stopped moving. His mouth hung open. The shock discovery of his best friend's secret took a while to absorb.

"Wha-what?"

"Yep. Don't look at me like that! I was young and kind of wanted to experiment. You know?"

Maybe the expression on the raven's face made him look more mortified than he actually was. Actually, he wasn't mortified at all. It was just a shock to find out your straightest friend, wasn't all that straight in the end.

"Ok. Explain yourself now. Or I may just die of lack of air."

Naruto took a deep breath and made a sign that meant for Sasuke to continue massaging while he explained.

"Well. I was fourteen and my best friend at that time was gay. I asked him how he knew and he told me that he just…did. So, you can kind of guess what happened after that. I was curious and he was willing." He shrugged and sighed.

"And? What happened after that? What made you realise that, no – you were not a big homo and, yes – boobs were the way to go?" Sasuke asked curiously, not even paying attention to what he was doing with his hands now (3), too infatuated in Naruto's story.

"To be honest, I don't think I ever did." It took the raven a while to get over that one. "The relationship didn't last that long. I think what broke us up was more to do with the fact that he wasn't right for me and not because of his gender."

"Wow. Now that is definitely a confession and a half."

Naruto nodded. He turned his body so that Sasuke wouldn't be able to massage him any more. His eyes were fixed to the carpet. Its grey colour and appearance burned into his cornea. It was as if what he had just revealed was too personal and embarrassed him. So Naruto continued carpet gazing until Sasuke broke the silence.

"Did you fuck?" The raven couldn't hold back the grin/smirk and relished in seeing Naruto embarrassed. It was a rare occasion. It had to be celebrated.

"No." His blue orbs didn't leave the tiny stain he had located. "We never went that far. When I moved to this city for college, we kind of lost contact too."

"So, you're telling me that if the right boy comes along, you may just turn _completely_ for them?" His curiosity had definitely got the better of him now.

"Yeah, I guess I am. You never know what the future holds. It may just happen."

They sat in complete silence after this for a good few minutes. Sasuke tried to swallow all of that information without choking, and really didn't understand why it made his insides warm and happy.

* * *

**Wow. I'm so nervous. This is my first fic that I've posted.**

**I've written others, but have never posted them.**

**Tell me if this is worth continuing. Even though I really want to!**

**(1) The song for his ring tone is 'Make Damn Sure' By 'Taking Back Sunday'**

**(2) Just if some people don't know. It's a saying for when someone's really funny. Like you're dying of laughter. **

**(3) Oh **_**behave!**_


	2. Grease theme tunes and powder

**I'm so happy! Thanks.**

**It actually shocked me that I got any reviews so quickly.**

**You're awesome thank you!**

**So you're in luck that I've got the next chap up so quick.**

**Hope you enjoy it and review.**

**Disclaimer: Note to self; M.Kishimoto **_**really**_** doesn't like it when you try to sneak into his art studio through the window and steal his sketches.**

* * *

Sasuke pulled the collar of his black hoodie closer to his body. Even though it was the middle of July, there was still a sharp wind around and he was trying his best to defy nature as he followed behind the bouncing blonde. The raven trudged up the litter strewn pavement until the pair reached a set of high doors. 

Naruto entered first, closely followed by Sasuke who was silently cursing the weather for making him lose most of the feeling in his fingertips.

The pub was hazy and the strong smell of beer and chips smacked them in the face as they searched around for a table consisting of their friends.

Naruto made his way over to a long table near two sofas, dodging the numerous amounts of drunken kids and a few families trying to eat a 'wholesome' dinner.

The sofa on the right was occupied by, Kiba; who currently had his arm around Hinata and was whispering things into her ear – causing her to giggle and blush maniacally, Sakura; compact in hand, was retouching light pink lip gloss and the powder on her nose. Lee was furthest to the end; he was clad in top to toe green and had a smile on his face that could compensate for all of the depressed teenagers out there.

The sofa to the left of Naruto was currently in use by Gaara, who was devouring Neji's mouth with his own and was trying persistently to get onto the other boys lap.

"Hey! Are you guys _that_ horny, that you can't wait to get home before you molest each other?" The blonde asked as he fell back onto the sofa beside a 'busy' Neji and made room for Sasuke on his right.

The red-head came up for air long enough to tell Naruto, that Neji's uncle was staying for the weekend and they weren't going to get _any_ privacy at all, so they had no choice but to let out all sexual frustration in public.

"Whatever. Can't you guys go to the bathroom and do that? I can't block out the noise."

Gaara came up for air once again to say, "Go fuck yourself." Before succeeding in getting into Neji's laps and decided to clamp onto his pulse instead.

Sasuke shook his head and tried to ignore the moans coming from Neji.

"Kiba! My man." Naruto would greet the brunette like this every time they met up, before high fiving.

All the usual greetings followed suit; Hinata's shy wave, Lee's enthusiastic fist pumping welcome, Kiba's fervent yet somehow offensive one liners, a muffled 'mmhhffhhiimhh' from Neji and Gaara and finally Sakura; who would flutter her eyelashes at Sasuke before giggling in a way in which she thought was seductive.

Tacky pop music blared from the speakers and a group of mid thirties broke into a rendition of drunken Girls Aloud.

"Whoop! Time to get pissed!" Naruto declared excitedly once everyone was settled. Sasuke really was not in the mood and was definitely not looking forward to dragging the unconscious blonde into bed. However he was saved from having to speak, as Gaara finally unattached himself from a very flushed Neji, sat on the space to his left and said to Naruto, "No fucking way."

"Ehh! What do you mean? But I wanna get wasted!"

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows together and had a look of confusion on her perfectly powdered face. "Why? What's wrong with Naruto getting drunk?" She twirled her silky pink hair in her fingertips as she asked this mind-boggling question. Sasuke had to grip onto his jeans, so that he wouldn't gag. Okay, maybe that was an overstatement, but her habits irritated him greatly. (1)

"Have you ever been here when Naruto gets wasted?" Neji cut it.

"No…"

"Yes, well Naruto is quite a gay prat when he's drunk. And he passes out very easily. If he's not unconscious, he's a prat. And when I say gay, I mean literally quite homosexual." Naruto opened his mouth to complain but Sasuke clamped his hand over the blonde's overused mouth.

"Ssshh. I allow you to get wasted if you want, but if you pass out, don't expect me to carry you home." The raven said before releasing Naruto's breathing hole and was met with a long whining noise.

"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! But Sasu-chan, don't you love me?" Naruto clasped his hands together and fluttered his eyelashes at the raven.

"Ok Ok, enough small talk, more drinking! We must celebrate the fact that college is over and we are free for another summer." Kiba said, he had one arm snaked around Hinata's shoulders. She was holding onto the hand that was around her shoulder and leant her head closer to him –blushing still. Her short, deep-purple hair just reached her shoulders and the cream jacket she had on was open to reveal a slim figure in a tight purple t-shirt.

Naruto stopped his puppy dog face to agree with Kiba's magnificent idea.

"HELL YES! Now _that's_ what I'm talking about!"

Once everyone had a drink (Sasuke's being an orange juice – he really wasn't an alcohol person), Naruto decided it was time for a toast.

He raised his glass in the air "Ok, a toast to the summer and being free long enough to be able to spend time with my amazing friends." A huge smile graced his features and everyone smiled with him. "To us art students!" The blonde 'chinked' his glass with his friend's before nearly downing it in one.

"Yosh! To our long and fruitful youth! May we all be full of energy and youth for as long as we can master!" Lee's little input caused the others to cower back and grimace at his unusual personality.

* * *

Three hours later the pub was now full of drunken middle aged men singing along to grease theme tunes and playing the game 'If I had to, whose wife I would do?' 

In the corner at the sofa there was now a mass of fairly drunk teenagers laughing along to some joke Kiba had cracked about a doctor, a camel and the next door neighbour's pool boy.

Only Sasuke and Hinata were still sober. Neither of them were too keen on getting drunk or alcohol in general. Or maybe Sasuke hadn't touched his beer because he knew that at the end of this night it would be him having to drag Naruto home and carry him to his bed.

The fact that Neji and Gaara were drunk and horny really didn't help the overall situation. Gaara had pinned Neji down on his back, arms above his head – on the sofa. Sakura was watching this scene intently before laughing at the top of her voice about some unknown joke and ending it with hiccoughs and choking…

Kiba and Naruto were slurring to one another and singing rather loudly to 'Girls' by Calvin Harris.

"I gethhh aww daa girls I geth aww daa girls!"

Sasuke piped in "Naruto, exactly how many drinks have you had?"

"I dunnaa, I sthopped countin aftahh five. Heeeheeeheee."

The raven sighed before sinking low in his seat to try and block out the songs, in which Lee had joined in with. He would pump his fist into the air at the end of every line and shout "YOSH!"

_Maybe if I become insanely drunk I'll pass out and then the singing would stop._

_But wait, you still have to be conscious to take Naruto home safely._

_Uhh, I forgot about that._

_Stupid dobe._

What happened next made Sasuke regret ever letting Naruto touch alcohol. Ever.

"Naruto, if you don't get off of me right now, and I mean _right_ now, I _will_ castrate you will a rusty knife." The blonde had jumped onto the oblivious raven's lap, straddling his hips. He had his legs wrapped around Sasuke's middle and was leaning dangerously close to the others face.

"Naruto! I mean it! Get off of me! Kibaaaaa! Help! Your crazy drunken friend is trying to molest me."

Kiba just giggled and instead turned to his girlfriend and began biting her nose.

Sakura had hurried off to the bathroom, claiming she was in need of extra powder.

Lee was…rapping.

And Neji and Gaara were making out in the male bathrooms.

Sasuke was screwed. He attempted pushing the younger boy off of him but he wouldn't budge and instead would groan and wrap his legs round tighter.

_I give up._

_It's useless._

"Sassshuu-chan? You wuvv me dun you?"

"Yes Naruto. But if you do not UN-attach yourself from me right now, I swear I'll tie you to a chair and make you listen to Steps on repeat."

"But Shasskeyy!" This was when Naruto licked Sasuke's face. Not a little measly lick. No. A proper from-jaw-to-forehead wet lick. And then he collapsed.

* * *

After the little scene in the pub, Sasuke had nearly thrown up. Naruto had fallen unconscious on Sasuke's lap and he was stuck. He wiped his face about two hundred times before decided it was decontaminated from the dobe's beer sodden saliva. 

The raven had told the others that he was going to carry Naruto home and that they should call him tomorrow and make sure that Sasuke hadn't murdered him in his sleep.

So that was what he doing, carrying Naruto bridal-style on the ten minute journey from the pub to his house. Usually it would take less time, but when you are carrying an eighteen year old unconscious boy in your arms, it would naturally take a little longer.

The blonde was lighter than he had expected and he was even debating on whether or not Naruto looked insanely adorable asleep in his arms.

His blonde hair was draped over his tanned face and light eyelashes flickered every once in a while. His mouth was a light pink colour, his lips were slightly parted as he took deep breathes.

Sasuke really suspected the blonde of just sleeping now and bagging a free ride home.

* * *

He took the last few steps towards Naruto's bed, before gently pulling back the covers and setting him onto the cold mattress. Sasuke sighed deeply and took a good look around the blonde's room. He wouldn't usually come in here often. The walls were a shade of white and many posters and notices were stuck up, including a poster for the American band 'Taking Back Sunday'. A small desk was sat in the corner beside the boy's wardrobe. Clothes were scattered all over the floor and the door to the connected bathroom was open to reveal a light blue room. 

"Sasuke?"

The said boy spun around to find the source of noise. Naruto's eyes were half-open and his voice was groggy.

"You're finally awake dobe."

"Sorry for passing out on you."

"No problem, but it will definitely take a bit longer for me to forgive your tongue." He laughed.

"Hey Sasuke? Can you take off my shoes?"

The raven boy moved forward and proceeded in taking off his shoes and socks.

"Does that help?"

"Yeah, but I'm really hot…"

"I am not stripping you dobe." Sasuke crossed his arms and smirked at Naruto's helpless expression.

"Just my top then, please. I'm really tired…"

Sasuke sighed and gave in, moving forward, he began pulling off the other's shirt, accidentally brushing along his sides. He eventually succeeded in dragging it up over the other's head.

"Thank you Sasuke." The blonde's eyes were sleep filled.

Just as Sasuke turned to leave, he felt something tug at his top. Naruto had grabbed and handful of his t-shirt and was trying to drag him back.

"What is it? I really want to go and get some sleep."

"Stay."

"I'm not sitting up all night babysitting you."

"No. I mean sleep here, with me."

_What?!_

"What?" The raven's eyes were huge with confusion but once he saw the look on Naruto's face, he gave into his strange request.

"Ok fine, just for tonight, but I swear if you touch me I _will_ castrate you."

Naruto smiled to himself before nodding and scooting over to make room for his friend.

Sasuke pulled off his top and trousers (now only clad in black boxers) and climbed into the bed. A light breeze wafted in through an open window and he could see the moon and stars glistening in the dark curtain of navy which was the sky. Naruto's breathing deepened and he nodded off almost instantly. However, Sasuke laid there watching his best friend's chest rise and fall as he slept before slowly being pulled into the land of dreams. Or nightmares.

* * *

**(1) Yes, if you haven't noticed, I really hate Sakura and hopefully in future chapters there will more Sakura-bashing. :)**

**Just wanted to say that at the end of this chap with Naruto asking Sasuke to take off his top wasn't my idea first. Sarge (FastForward) did it first, though I sort of changed it and modified, but I thought that I'd clear that up before I get told off.**

**Love and reviews :)**

**Next chap will probably be up tomorrow.**


	3. Short stuff and cold sweats

**Ok, Chapter 3 is up.**

**Who could have predicted that I'd be able to update everyday?**

**Not me, that's FO SHO.**

**THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS YOU SEXGODS.**

**I was kind of dying to write the nightmare part in this chap. Is it wrong that I like to write about pain, death and general evil stuff like that? -MANIC LAUGH-**

**Another thing, I'm hiring! I would like to look for an awesome person who will stick this out with me and inspire and help me etc. Sort of like a muse type person. Because I have no idea where this story is going after the next two chaps or so.**

**If you're interested I will pay you with cyber cookies and love! Review me and tell me if you'd like to. I'll love you forever.**

**Last thing, I swear! Don't worry, SasuNaru is coming soon. The kiss will be in the next chapter if everything goes to plan and looooove and stuff will follow a while after. It would take a while for the relationship to work, seeing as they're friends and shit first. But don't get your hopes up, I don't write lemons. Only mild limey things.**

**Disclaimer: I thought that sending M.Kishimoto a gift of flowers and chocolates would make up for it and change his mind but…I thought wrong.**

* * *

_Sasuke was running. He had stayed in school for longer than usual today and he didn't want his parents to worry. He had also got back the results for his spelling test that day and was bursting to tell them the good news._

_Smudges of pink were visible on his cheeks due to the fact that he had been running for over ten minutes now. His school bag was clunking against his side every time he took a step. It was making his hip sore but that didn't matter right now, he was too eager and proud to care about anything. Nothing else mattered. _

_Once he turned into his road and was sprinting up the driveway, he was sure something was wrong. All the lights were turned off and the front door was ajar._

_Sasuke took a deep breathe and pushed it open, keeping one arm out in front of his body in case he was met with a burglar in the dark or something else terrible like that. _

"_Okasan?" _

_Silence._

"_Okasan?!" His voice was growing more desperate._

_Sasuke took a look in all the rooms downstairs before taking feeble steps up the creaking wood stairs._

"_Chichiue?"_

_Silence._

_His parent's bedroom door was open a fraction, but Sasuke couldn't make out anything which was beyond it._

_A foreign scent hit his nose; the smell was so strong that the small boy had to scrunch up his face in order not to throw up. It made his stomach queasy with worry. _

_It was as if his feet didn't want to move any further. They were nailed to the spot in front of his parent's bedroom. The smell was getting stronger and Sasuke's eyes were watering._

_He was begging his body to move. To check what was beyond this door. To find out what the smell was and what had caused it._

_Move. Move. Move. Please! Please move! _

_Finally his mind won the battle and he was pushing open the white door._

_Nothing would have prepared him for what was beyond._

_His knees buckled from underneath him and he was on the floor. Tears were spilling from his bloodshot eyes. The scene was so gruesome and yet he couldn't tear his eyes away._

_His mother's body was on the floor- at the foot of her bed. She had deep gashes and cuts all over her frail body. Bruises were visible around her neck and the look on her white face was one of terror and pleading._

_His father's body was sprawled over his mothers. It was as if he had died trying to protect his wife. The same cuts, gashes, wounds and bruises were visible on his body too. A pool of blood had formed beneath both of their heads._

_The smell was of blood. The smell was getting stronger every second and Sasuke's tears were flowing faster too._

_He didn't make a sound; no howls of pain were heard in that house. He couldn't bring himself to scream. He was too scared._

_The faint noises of footsteps on carpet were heard from behind him. Sasuke froze. It was the murderer, he knew it. So he didn't dare turn around._

"_You're finally home Otouto."_

_The frail boy recognised that voice. It wasn't a murderer, it was his brother. Sasuke wondered how he could keep his voice so calm, so emotionless, when their parents' dead bodies were just a few feet away._

_The raven whipped his head around- ready to run into the arms of his big brother. What he saw this time was worst than before, if that was possible._

_Itachi stood in the doorway, a sneer painted onto his lips and his eyes were wide and bloodshot. His shirt was smeared with scarlet liquid. Blood. In his right hand he held a kitchen knife; he was gripping the handle tightly while his arm was limp at his side. The blade of the knife was caked in blood._

_Sasuke shook his head violently. No. No. This is all a bad dream._

"_No…"_

"_Yes Otouto. Yes."_

"_No!" He had found the strength to jump to his feet._

_Itachi smirked and let out a loud manic laugh. His head was thrown backwards and the sound filled their silent house._

_Sasuke tried to run past his brother, but Itachi grabbed the collar of his shirt and shoved him against the wall in the corridor. He only realised now that the walls were smeared with blood too._

_Itachi clamped his hand around his younger brother's throat and leaned in toward his ear._

"_Don't cry Otouto, there's no point, no one will hear you."_

_He was sobbing uncontrollably and he couldn't control it._

"_I don't want to die. I don't want to die."_

_Itachi laughed maniacally again._

"_Don't worry dear brother," he stroked the side of Sasuke's face. "I'm not going to kill you. This is enough for me. I've broken you instead." He released his brother and watched as Sasuke slid down the wall and fell to his knees._

_Itachi was right. Sasuke was broken._

* * *

"Sasuke? Sasuke?" Naruto shook his friend's shoulders lightly as he tried to wake him up. 

The raven slowly opened his eyes. They were emotionless as he stared at the ceiling. He was drenched in cold sweat and his whole body was shaking.

"Sasuke? Are you alright? You were calling out in your sleep and you were almost in tears." The blonde watched intently – filled with worry, as a silent tear rolled down his friend's pale face before dripping off of his chin.

"It's been ten years and yet I can't get the image of them bleeding on the floor out of my head. And even worse, I can't get the sound of Itachi's laugh to leave my mind." Sasuke's voice was flat and yet filled with years and years of pain.

Naruto stroked his friend's hair and tucked strands of dark hair behind his ears. He wiped the tears away with his thumb before saying, "its ok Sasuke, its ok. I wish I could help you, but I don't know what I should do."

For the first time, the raven turned his head so their eyes were locked. "But you are helping. Just knowing you're here for me helps."

Naruto smiled sweetly before yawning and stretching his arms out. It was early in the morning, maybe just about seven o clock. Light filtered through the window to highlight concaves on the blonde's face. Sasuke watched silently as he rubbed his eyes and clutched his head tightly.

"Ouch. Maybe I shouldn't have drunk so much last night."

"I second that. Never again am I going to carry you all the way home because you've passed out over too much alcohol." Sasuke's voice was slowly gong back to normal and his tears had stopped falling, leaving a shaken boy with a tear streaked face.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head with one hand embarrassedly. "Yeah, about that – I wanted to thank you-"

"Don't worry about it." The raven had climbed out of bed and was making his way to the door. "I'm going to have a shower, and then I'll get you some aspirin and water for that migraine. Stay here."

"You don't have t-"

"Don't worry about it, I want to." And with that, he was gone.

Naruto couldn't help but worry. He was thoroughly distracted now, making a note to himself for further notice; _never sleep in your jeans. It's very uncomfortable_.

'_You've got this new head filled up with smoke and I've got my veins all tangled close-'_

It took the confused blonde a while before he located the device which was making his headache worse. He flipped it open without checking the caller id.

"This better be good, I have a flipping migraine and –"

"_Hey Shortstuff."_

Naruto shot upright into a sitting position once he had recognised the voice at the other end. Bad idea, now he had a new thumping sensation in the back of his head…

"Shikamaru?! Is that you?"

"_Yeah. I'm glad someone's happy to hear from me. I called Kiba first but he hung up on me before I got to say who it was. Something about 'an early morning fuck is so much more important…' so troublesome." _

"I can't believe it! It's so great to hear from you. How long has it been? I hadn't heard from you in a year at least and I haven't seen you in longer!"

"_Yes, tis true, but I call with news."_

"Ooh really? What kind of news?"

"_I'm coming back to London."_

"Ohmygod that's great! How long are you staying?"

_"All summer."_

"Score! When should I expect you? We have so much catching up to do."

"_I'm flying down tomorrow, we should definitely meet up."_

"Awesome! This is great news. How about we make a night of it? I'll invite some friends over and we could have a night in with movies and shit. Does that sound good to you?"

_"Great. Making plans is too troublesome for me anyway. Still friends with any of the original high schoolers?"_

"Yep. You know Sasuke, Kiba, Gaara and Sakura, right? And you'll get to meet Hinata, Neji and Lee. It will be so great!"

"_Sure. You live in the same house with Iruka right?"_

"Same house, but no Iruka. He moved in with Kakashi and sort of let me have the house."

"_By Kakashi, do you mean our high school history teacher?"_

"The very same one. They met up and hit it off straight away." Naruto was grinning widely. It was always good news to hear from old friends for him.

"_Great. I'll be over at seven, is that alright?"_

"That's great! I'll see you then! And by the way Shikamaru, I'm not short!"

"_Troublesome."_ And then he hung up the phone.

Sasuke inched into the bedroom holding a glass of water in one hand and pain killers in the other.

"Who was that on the phone?"

"Shikamaru! He's flying back down to London tomorrow. I'm going to invite the others over and we're going to have an awesome night full of DVDs and popcorn!"

Sasuke tried to sound enthusiastic about another get together with their loud friends and had to fight the urge to roll his eyes.

"Sounds great Naruto. Are they going to stay overnight?"

"Why not?! That would be even more awesome!" His voice was on the edge of breaking from an overload of being too excited.

"Hn. Take this." He pushed the items he was carrying into the other boy's hands before shuffling out of his room to catch up on the daily obituaries. He was not cryptic! Just curious.

* * *

After a good 30 minutes, Naruto joined Sasuke in the living room – washed, clothed, drugged (only pain killers, I swear!), and having finished inviting all of their friends over the phone. 

"All set. People are going to start coming over at seven O' clock tomorrow and they're going to stay till they feel like leaving. We have the time and we have the space."

The raven wasn't too thrilled at the idea of having to spend more than a few hours with a loud Kiba, a horny Neji and Gaara, an over excited Lee and a clingy Sakura. Hinata was ok with him, she wasn't too loud and she wasn't too anything else that the others were.

"Great, can't wait." He tried to make his voice sound less sarcastic, but that plan had failed.

Naruto sat on the arm of the sofa, looking over Sasuke's shoulder at what he was reading.

"Can I ask you a question Sasuke?"

"Hn."

"You know the nightmare you had last night?" This made Sasuke's ears perk up, they would never talk about things like this – it was like some unspoken rule. "Do you have it often?"

"If you call every other night often, then yes."

Naruto made a noise in the back of throat like he was trying to cover up a gasp or something.

"When I saw you thrashing around in your sleep and calling out, it really scared me. I had never seen that look of terror on your face before…" The blonde had trailed off and fixed his eyes upon the wall ahead.

Sasuke could tell that Naruto had cared and was genuinely worried, it made him feel special. "What was I saying?"

He took a deep breath and said "You-you were saying that you didn't want to die. You just kept repeating that, over and over. And you were sobbing too. No tears just sobs." It looked as if it had taken him a lot of courage to say those words.

"Yeah. It was that day; it just keeps replaying in my mind – over and over again."

Sasuke had folded up the newspaper and placed it in his lap. He was staring down into his hands that were folded together. "I just keep thinking that if-"

"You don't have to. If you don't want to speak about it, you don't have to."

"I do, it might help me forgot, you know?"

"Yeah, I do." Naruto didn't dare look away from the spot on the wall his eyes were fixed upon; deep conversations were never his speciality.

"I just keep thinking that maybe if I hadn't come home late or if I hadn't gone to school at all, then maybe I could have stopped Itachi. Maybe I could have done anything to-to…" Sasuke's sentence trailed off as more tears spilled from his eyes.

Naruto crouched down in front of his helpless friend. He put both of his hands on the raven's shoulders and finally looked into his eyes. "Don't blame yourself Sasuke. It wasn't your fault. You could never have predicted what Itachi was going to do and even if you had, you wouldn't have been able to stop it. Don't blame yourself. No one would have guessed that Itachi was going to be overtaken by the drugs and the hate."

Sasuke looked back into cerulean eyes and nodded.

"Good, now come here." Naruto pulled the raven towards himself and wrapped his arms around the other's body. It was the only form of comfort he could think of for now.

He whispered into his shaggy hair "Thank you Naruto."

* * *

**Woot woot. Hope you liked it.**

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	4. Twister and vodka bottles

**Screw 20 reviews, this much is enough. I was dying to post this anyway. The kiss finally happens and you can see how Sasuke takes it and stuff.**

**I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.**

**Also. Why doesn't anyone want to be my muse? -CRIES- Please?**

**If not, then I guess we'll all have to put up with my shitty excuse for plots. Lol, don't worry, I'll try my best.**

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**-GIVESCOOKIESGLOMPGIVESCOOKIESGLOMPGIVESCOOKIESGLOMP-**

**Disclaimer: I tried asking the normal way, saying straight to him 'Give me your characters or you may have to be tortured' so I don't know why he called the police on me… **

* * *

At exactly 7:00pm, the doorbell to the Uzumaki residence rang.

"I'll get it!" Naruto hollered to Sasuke upstairs. The raven was brooding in his room cursing to anyone in his head who would listen.

Naruto stopped himself from saying 'Oh dear sweet Jesus', when he was faced with Lee at the doorway. He was dressed in the tightest, shiniest, most hideous green spandex suit imaginable. He black bowl cut hair was extra shiny and had more gel than usual in it. There was a huge grin on his face – stretching from ear to ear and he was clutching a gigantic green bag full of his other green clothes and supplies.

"Naruto-san! It's so great to see you so full of youth and energy once again." He pulled the awestruck blonde into a bone crunching hug before shouting at the top of his voice "WE MUST CELEBRATE THE SPRING TIME OF OUR YOUTH." And then he burst into theatrical tears. Naruto nearly fainted.

* * *

It was 7:30 once everyone had arrived and they were settled. Shikamaru had begun to catch up with old friends and was introduced to the newcomers by Naruto. He had called Lee troublesome, Neji horny and Hinata sensible. All in all, things were going well.

As soon as Gaara and Neji had gotten through the door, the redhead had pushed Neji against one of many walls and had proceeded in making out with him – very noisily.

Shikamaru had called them troublesome and had taken a swig of the vodka he had brought with him. Sasuke didn't think it was possible for any two people to be so horny _all the time._

"Ok Everyone," Naruto tried to get everyone's attention, "I'm going to sort out rooms now so you can dump your bags in there and you'll know where to go when you are shit-drunk and tired."

Neji had pumped his fist in the air (in a very Lee-like manner) and whooped before saying "Yay, a bed. Sex time!"

Hinata had pretended she didn't hear her cousin say that as she blushed outrageously.

"No fucking way Hyuuga."

"Ehh?! But Naruto! You've got to let us!"

"I have just replaced all the sheets in all the rooms, so there will be no screwing. Understood?" he pointed a finger at all of the teenagers, in an accusatory fashion, until they nodded and he continued. "Ok. Now that's settled, I can organise rooms.

I was thinking that Sasuke could sleep in my room, so that Neji and Gaara could sleep in his."

"Hn."

"Hinata, Kiba and Shikamaru could sleep in one of the guest rooms-- its ok Shikamaru! There are two beds. Finally Sakura and Lee could sleep in the other guest room – there are two beds in there too, don't look so scared, I'm sure Lee doesn't bite."

Sakura just twirled her long pink hair and mumbled something inaudible about wanting to sleep in a room with Sasuke. This made the raven extra twitchy and insecure.

* * *

One hour and a half later; all nine of the teenagers had settled down on the carpeted floor of Naruto's living room to watch a movie they had finally agreed on. It had taken quite a long time to find a film they could all enjoy; however in the end it was an anonymous victory for Harry Potter. Who would have known that nine different kids were all secretly Harry Potter geeks? The fourth film was the one chosen and they were all watching intently as Harry dived into the water in search of his special people.

"Oh, Cedric Diggory is so yummy." Sakura swooned.

"I'd like a piece of that." Gaara grinned, but it didn't last long as Neji slapped the back of his head and pouted cutely.

"Aww, but baby, you know I want a piece of you the most. But come on, you've got to agree with me, he's sexy." The pale-eyed boy grinned widely and agreed with his boyfriend. This was before he pounced on him and straddled his hips. No one even flinched, this behaviour was all too normal for them.

"Shikamaru?"

"Yes." He answered lazily, before taking a swig of his vodka.

"Don't keep it all to yourself. I want alcohol!" Naruto whined. Shikamaru sighed, mumbled something about the blonde being troublesome and brought out another bottle of vodka for his friend.

"How many bottles do you have on you, anyway?" Naruto looked puzzled and impressed at the same time.

"Let's keep it at; lots."

* * *

"Monopoly!"

"Over my dead body, dog-boy."

"Fuck off, you big emo."

A glaring match ensued between Kiba and Sasuke. The raven won; naturally. He was the master of glaring. No one would dare beat him.

"Seven minutes in heaven!"

Hinata blushed and said "I don't think that's appropriate Sakura." She groaned and folded her arms.

The film had finished and everyone was now trying to decide what game should be played. This was proving to be more difficult than the blonde had predicted. Before the arrival of everyone, he had cleared a space in the living room for them all to sit; so space wasn't the issue, just finding something to agree on was the problem.

Shikamaru was sitting lazily in the corner against a wall, swigging at his second bottle of vodka every now and then.

Amazingly, Neji and Gaara were not making out, they were lying on the floor side by side holding hands and just…cuddling. (A/N: Awww. I love GaarNeji.)

Kiba was leant against a sofa, with Hinata rested against his drawn up knees. He was playing with her hair; running fingers in it before twirling it around and stroking it out again.

Lee was the only one standing, he stood with his legs apart and his hands on his hips. No one knew why he was doing it, yet again no one ever questioned anything he ever did; there were usually no answers.

Sasuke was sitting cross-legged side by side with Naruto. The blonde had nearly finished the bottle of vodka Shikamaru had given him and was starting to sway, but the raven was sure he'd last longer than this.

Sakura was slowly trying to inch closer and closer to Sasuke, she thought she was being inconspicuous but he had definitely noticed; which was why he was trying to inch closer to Naruto every second.

The natural light from outside had long gone, lights which lined the ceiling set a hazy glow upon the teenagers relaxing in the Uzumaki residence. The atmosphere was comforting and tranquil, even to Sasuke who would usually despise being in close spaces with more than one or so people.

"I have an idea!" Naruto exclaimed suddenly, breaking everyone from their peaceful daydreams.

"How about, we play spin the bottle?" Groans were heard throughout the group.

"Oh come on! It'll be a laugh." When no one moved, Naruto told them he'd force them all to watch a sickly girly chick flick…on repeat. It got the desired effect, except for Sakura who seemed pretty thrilled by the idea.

All nine of them were sat in a circle, side by side.

"Okay, rules," Naruto began "We'll use this bottle," he held up the now empty vodka bottle and placed it in the centre. "Whoever the bottle lands on, you've_ got_ to kiss." There were more groans from the kids. "Oh come on! It'll be fun. It's not like it's a serious kiss; just some fun." The noise that ensued next, made Naruto think they half-heartedly were agreeing with him. "One more thing! You _have _to use tongues." He giggled to himself.

"But Naruto! That's just wrong, what if it lands on Hinata?"

"Oh Ssh Sakura, if you're sure of your sexuality, then one kiss will be nothing."

She pouted and crossed her arms in a stroppy way.

"Who's first then?"

Gaara spoke "I'll do it!"

Neji flinched, but it wasn't for long as coincidently the bottle landed on him.

"Ugh, as if they need an extra motive to make out." Kiba added, as the two boys were practically eating each others faces.

Naruto rolled his eyes and prodded Neji to tell him it was his go to spin. The pale-eyed boy didn't move so Naruto gave up and spun it himself. Sasuke.

The raven's heart jumped into his throat. "No way."

Naruto rounded on him and grinned "You have no choice, you heard the rules."

"But you're my best friend, that's just weird."

Sakura eyes were bulging out of her sockets and Sasuke couldn't tell if she was angry that he had to kiss someone else, or if she was a yaoi fan. He hoped it was the first one, he wasn't in the mood to be perved on.

"Yer so troublesome." Shikamaru half slurred from the other side of the circle.

Before Sasuke had noticed what'd happened, he realised there was no point in arguing anymore because Naruto had pounced on top of him; straddling his hips and holding both of the raven's arms above his head. The blonde had a look of satisfaction on his face as he leaned in to Sasuke's ear. His breathe was warm and it caused shivers to run down his back. He remembered when he had done practically the same thing to the dobe a few days back. "You're not going anywhere Sasuke, I've got _you _now." Naruto's voice was slow and smooth, it really wasn't helping the shivers.

The raven could sense all eyes in the room on him, but he didn't care, he was too distracted gazing down at Naruto's slowly nearing lips.

He didn't know why he wasn't struggling.

He didn't know why he let Naruto ever let their lips make contact.

He didn't know why he was allowing Naruto's tongue to slide along with his own.

He didn't know why he was letting Naruto's curious tongue search every concave in his mouth.

He didn't know why his hands were suddenly in Naruto's hair, pulling them closer.

And worst of all, he didn't know why he was enjoying it.

Before Sasuke could make sense of any of it, the blonde was clambering off of him to take the seat beside him.

"Finally. I thought I was going to have to tell you two to either break it up or get a room." Kiba said, eyes; inquisitive.

Naruto just laughed and turned back to Sasuke who was still laying face up; dazed and tingling all over.

"You're a pretty good kisser teme, I might have to give you another go."

Sasuke didn't know what to make of that, _was he serious?_ Then again, he didn't know what to make of anything anymore.

"And we thought we were horny." Gaara muttered to Neji under his breath.

* * *

"Left hand on green!" Kiba shouted from the left side of the mat, nearest to the spinner.

They had all given up on spin the bottle after Naruto and Sasuke's kiss and had decided that playing twister could be fun. Boy, were they wrong.

Sakura had given up and thrown a tantrum when Kiba 'accidentally' knocked her over from the side of the mat, Shikamaru had lost after the second spin, claiming 'It was a troublesome game anyway', Hinata wasn't participating, Neji and Gaara lasted longer, but Gaara had tickled Neji's neck causing them both to topple onto the floor; on top of one another and Lee seemed the likeliest one to win with his promise that if he fell over he would have to do 200 press ups. Which was what he was doing now; counting out loud "180…181…"

Coincidently, Naruto and Sasuke were the only remaining contenders. The raven wasn't all too thrilled with having to play such a trivial game, but was snapped out of his thoughts when he found himself in close proximities with the blonde once again. The latest move meant that Sasuke had to reach right over Naruto's body, reaching to his left; beside the blonde's own hand. Naruto was facing upwards; balancing in a very uncomfortable position and Sasuke found himself balancing right above the blonde; gazing down into cerulean eyes. For a moment their eyes locked onto each other and it was as if time stopped. The raven could've sworn he saw something in his friend's eyes that he had never encountered before, but it was gone so quickly that he could have been imagining it.

"Hello? Did you even hear me?" Kiba's voice brought them both back to reality and Naruto let out a nervous laugh.

"Sorry Kiba. What did you say?"

"Never mind. Your foot is already there anyway, I'll spin again."

Naruto's eyes fixed on Sasuke's again and as he gazed deeply into the others eyes, the raven found his gaze lowering to the blonde's lips. He didn't know what the feeling in his stomach was or why he was feeling that way, but all he knew was that he wanted those lips on his again and the longing made the feeling more intense.

"Right leg on blue!" As Kiba shouted this, Naruto tried to slowly inch towards the respective colour, but found himself on the floor in a heap.

"I guess I've won dobe." Sasuke said as he got to his feet and offered the other a hand.

* * *

He didn't understand it. Any of it. The more he thought about it, the more he denied that that was the answer and was back to square one.

The games and alcohol had slowly stopped and in the early hours of the morning the nine teenagers trudged up to their respective bedrooms with hazy eyes and heavy legs.

This was why Sasuke was lying in Naruto's bed watching the ceiling as it did nothing and remained the same. The blonde had nodded off almost instantly and was currently breathing deeply beside the raven.

He turned his head to face the sleeping form beside him. He watched Naruto's chest rise and fall slowly and he watched the graceful strands of his hair fall to in front of his face. Before he knew what he was doing, he had extended his hand out and brushed the blonde locks out of his peaceful friend's face. His pale hands stroked Naruto's cheek; tracing the whisker like scars he had gotten when he was a baby and was working its way gradually along Naruto's jaw until his fingers came in contact with Naruto's soft lips.

It hit him like a rock. The impact was so strong he had to take a deep breath. He couldn't deny it any longer, ever since the blonde had kissed him, he was looking at his friend in a new light and he finally came to terms with the fact that he liked Naruto. _Like _liked him.

His fingertips were still tracing the soft pink lips and in a wave of acting on impulse, he reached over and gently placed his own lips against Naruto's. Just for a second. Just so he could feel those lips on his once again. The feeling in his stomach was back again. It worried him. It worried him that maybe he was falling fast; _too_ fast.

Sasuke turned over and closed his dark eyes, unaware that the blonde beside him had woken from the moment he had touched his face and had definitely felt a pair of soft lips on his own.

Naruto smiled to himself and turned to face the wall; being pulled into the land of the sleeping once again.

* * *

**What did you think? What did you think? What did you think?**

**I hope it didn't disappoint anyone. Hehee.**

**R&R pleeeeassee. Remember, I LOVE YOU SEXGODS.**

**The next chap will probably take a bit longer to post, I need to try and get my head around what's going to actually happen. But, who knows?**

**EDIT: NEARLY FINISHED WRITING CHAP 5. WOW.**


	5. Coffee cups and revelations

**I'm glad you guys are enjoying this.**

**Thanks for the reviews everyone. I'm going to start trying to reply to them.**

**Read on, you crazy lunatics. only kidding, love you really.**

**The author is too lazy to even write 'disclaimer' at the start of this sentence, what makes you think they can be bothered to draw enough drawings to fill up an entire book?**

**

* * *

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Sasuke woke with a start. The nightmare was back. He was sweating and gasping for air. He rolled over, expecting to see the blonde sleeping beside him, but was surprised to just find mattress. Glancing towards the clock on the wall, it read '7:30'. Naruto would never wake up before 10:00 if he could help it. _What was wrong?_

The raven climbed out of bed and checked the adjoining bathroom. He wasn't in there either.

Slowly, Sasuke made his way across the hall; hearing the rhythmic tune of breathing from each closed door. He made his way down the first few steps – making sure to miss the steps which he knew were creaky – when he heard muffled voices downstairs. _Who was Naruto talking to?_

Curious as he was, Sasuke climbed down a few more stairs so that he could make out the voices but so that he knew they wouldn't see him. The voices were heard from the kitchen.

"Here." Sasuke recognised the voice of Shikamaru as he heard a mug come in contact with the marble worktop.

"Thanks Shikamaru." The blonde's voice was thick and groggy, like he hadn't had long enough to sleep.

There was the sound of chairs scraping along the floor as both boys settled themselves in the stools and began sipping from their coffee.

"This is the first time me and you could catch up properly, since I arrived."

"Yeah." Naruto said.

"What's gotten you up so early? You were never a morning person."

"Mmmhm. True, I just couldn't sleep."

"Anything I should worry about?"

"Nahh. Just had a lot on my mind, y'know?"

"Yeah, I do. So how are things? How's school and stuff?"

"It's good. We haven't got our exam results back yet, but I'm pretty sure mine will be ok. Art was always my thing. Might've been shit at maths and English, but Art was always my thing." Sasuke could imagine Naruto smiling to himself as he said this.

"Where are you going for University?"

"It's just a local one. Me, Sasuke, Kiba and Hinata are supposed to be going to the same one. It's pretty close, so there's no need to go on campus or anything."

"Sounds good. Grand."

"What about you? I never got a chance to ask. How's that scholarship in Japan going? You _were_ always fucking smart."

"I like it there. It's really nice, y'know? You should come up sometime, I'm sure you'd like it."

"Yeah. I probably would, and my dad would've liked me to get connected to 'my roots'" The blonde chuckled softly, reminiscing over the stories Iruka had told him about his dad.

"Mhm." There was a pause as they both took more sips of their coffee. Sasuke shuffled quietly on the steps, attempting to get more comfortable.

"So." Naruto broke the silence. "Met anyone up there, in Japan I mean?" More silence followed as Shikamaru thought about the question.

"I've met a few girls, y'know? But no one's really wowed me. They were all too troublesome." He sighed at the end of this. "What about you?"

"Me? What? Oh, have I met anyone?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it's complicated." Sasuke's ears perked up.

"I've got time. Go on."

"Well there is someone I like, but-but I'm not sure if they like me back…" This time the raven eyes widened._ What?_ Naruto had told him that he didn't have his eye on anyone.

"Do I know this lucky someone?"

"I don't know. Not how I know them, anyway." Naruto looked away embarrassed, he was twiddling his hands together and watching this coffee swirl and steam in his cup.

"You should go for it."

He looked up abruptly, "What?!"

"You know, tell them how you feel. It sounds pretty serious by the looks of it. You'll never know until you try, right?"

The blonde looked back down into his cup. "I guess so…"

"What's going on with you and Sasuke?"

Naruto and Sasuke's head's snapped up sharp.

"What? Sa-Sasuke? Me-me and Sasuke?"

"Yeah. You two seem pretty tight. And he practically lives here. Have I been replaced as a best friend?" Shikamaru put on a mock sad voice that the raven thought he'd never hear him use.

"Oh…oh! I guess we are pretty close. Me and Sasuke spend a lot of time in my house together. It's a wonder he hasn't officially moved in or something." Naruto chuckled nervously as the raven heard him shift his chair uncomfortably and down the rest of his coffee.

The raven heard the rest of their conversation melt into inaudible muffles as he trudged back upstairs to take a shower.

* * *

_So there is someone else? Naruto does like someone else. Why didn't he tell me? Why was he lying to me? _

These thoughts swirled around in Sasuke's mind as he washed away the shampoo on his hair. The hot water made his usually pale skin red and tingly. But he didn't care. The only thing he could care about right now was the fact that there was suddenly someone else on the scene. Some unknown girl who was going to sweep Naruto off his feet and they were going to skip off into the sunset; hand in hand.

The thought of it made the raven mad, and he had only just realised how hard he was scrubbing his arms, there were red marks from where his anger had gotten the better of him.

Since Sasuke's revelation last night, when he had admitted to himself that he really _did_ like his best friend and he liked him_ a lot_, he realised that the only thing on his mind was how he was going to make Naruto like him back or how he was going to let the blonde know how he felt.

It's harder than it looks. To go from - stupid best friend, to major crush - in one day.

Sasuke stepped out of the steaming shower and pulled a towel from the hanger on the wall. He quickly towel dried his body before tying it around his waist and stepping back into Naruto's joint bedroom.

The blonde was lying down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His face gave away nothing. In the last few seconds he had decided something; he was mad with Naruto for lying to him, for not telling his very best friend something that sounded so important and serious.

Hearing the footsteps, Naruto jerked up into a sitting position and looked at Sasuke clad only in a towel; with one sweeping motion of his eyes.

"Hey."

The raven tried to keep his voice impassive as he replied, "Hello."

"What's up?" His brows had furrowed together and he stood up from the bed. It seemed Naruto could see right through him. _Damn._

"Nothing." His voice was cold but not colder than the usual Sasuke people would meet.

Naruto approached him slowly and put one hand on his damp shoulder. "Hey, don't lie to me. I can tell when there's something wrong."

Sasuke hated himself for doing what he was doing, especially since his friend's (_crush's?_) tone of voice was so caring, but he just remembered the fact that Naruto didn't trust him and the anger boiled up inside of him once again.

He jerked his shoulder away from Naruto's grasp and stalked towards the door, "_Nothing _is wrong, okay? So just get off of my case." With that, Sasuke stormed out of the room to get some clothes from his 'bedroom'

The blonde was glued to the spot with his mouth slightly open from shock. _What the hell? What have I done wrong?_

* * *

"FUCKING HELL! Stop that _right _now! This is MY room, MY bed and MY FUCKING space." 

Gaara removed his mouth from Neji's neck -as he lay there panting- to reply, "Geez Sasuke. Christ, someone would think you had PMS with that mood."

The raven stamped his feet with every step as he pulled open the wardrobe and pulled out some clothes to wear. "If you want to fucking molest Neji, could you do the decency of doing it in the bathroom or OFF of my bed?"

The pale-eyed boy was still panting and his face was flushed as he lay underneath Gaara. "Kick him out Gaara, kick him out NOW."

Sasuke was already half gone; he gave them both a glare that would've burned right through their heads as he slammed the door shut and shouted "MY FUCKING ROOM" through the door.

Kiba had stuck his head out from the room he was sharing with Hinata.

"What's got your panties in a twist?"

"Fuck off Kiba. I'm not in the mood." The expression on his face would've told anyone else to back off, but to Kiba he took it as a chance to wind up Sasuke more.

"Geez. Who knew you were such a grouch? Wait, we all did. Chill out dude. Besides, bad language is supposed to be my thing." Sasuke glared so hard at Kiba, that for a second he actually cowered.

"Whatever dude, just keep it down. I've got a lovely young lady in here trying to sleep and your angry rants are keeping her up." With that, the brunette closed the door quietly with a click and the raven could hear the creaking of the bed as Kiba climbed back in with Hinata.

* * *

Sasuke was angry. Sasuke was very angry. Anyone who stood near him would be able to feel the anger radiating off of him. Why had they forced him into this? What had he done to deserve spending the day doing this? 

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun! What do you think? It's nice isn't it?" Sakura's high and girly voice reverberated in the raven's head. She was holding up a short denim skirt to his face and was asking him his opinion.

"Hn."

"You like it? Wait, I'll just try it on and then you'll see what it looks like on me." The pink haired girl hurried into one of the nearby changing rooms of the store to change.

Earlier on in the day when everyone was still at Naruto's house; eating and talking, Sakura had suggested they all go shopping. Naturally, Sasuke had thought that everyone would disagree and say it was an absurd idea, but to his surprise they were all thrilled with it. The raven was pretty sure it was because he had caused such a racket in the morning, they were getting him back. _Filthy bastards. _

Hinata had dragged Kiba into a book store, Naruto had dragged Shikamaru and Lee to the game store, Gaara had dragged Neji into one of the closest toilets and surprise, surprise, Sakura had grabbed Sasuke's arm and dragged him into a clothes shop.

It was pure hell. Doubled.

The said girl reappeared, and was now dressed in the shortest denim skirt known to humanity. It displayed a good amount of her long, slender and tanned legs. Her top wasn't any better, the material was extremely low cut and showed more than a little of her flat stomach.

She did a small twirl and asked "What do you think? Shall I get it? Sasuke-kun? Are you listening?"

The raven had spaced out. "Sakura, do whatever the hell you want, I'm leaving." He turned his back on her and marched out of the store; fast.

He didn't understand girls like her. She knew perfectly well that she wasn't his 'type', but was still determined in him 'falling in love' with her. She called him being gay a 'phase'. It definitely wasn't a phase and even if it was, Sakura would be the last girl in the world Sasuke would consider. (A/n: Christ, I used a lot of '''s in that paragraph.)

Sasuke could hear her calling his name as he left the shop, but he really didn't care. He was searching for Naruto, that's who would cheer him up right now, but just then he realised how much of a prick he had been that morning. The blonde didn't deserve his snappiness, besides there was probably a good reason for telling Sasuke otherwise about liking somebody. However, the more he thought about it, the more it didn't make sense and all he could conclude was that Naruto trusted Shikamaru more than he trusted him. It hurt.

* * *

"Sasuke! Where have you been?" The raven had been searching for Naruto for the past ten minutes and had even passed Gaara and Neji making out on a nearby bench. He had finally come across the blonde sitting in a music store flicking through magazines; the others were nowhere to be seen. 

"Hey dobe, I've been looking for you." Sasuke sat beside Naruto, leant against the wall and picked up that week's Kerrang mag to flick through.

"Oh really?" He didn't sound upset anymore and for once the raven was actually glad the other didn't hold grudges.

"Yeah, I wanted to apologise to you." Naruto looked up from his mag and locked his eyes with charcoal ones.

"R-really? You don't have to…"

"I do. I was totally out of line earlier. It wasn't your fault I was in a mood," _it kind of actually was but who cares right now? _"And I had no right taking it out on you." Neither broke the eye contact for a good while until Naruto started stuttering a 'thanks'.

"No problem dobe. Friends?" He held out his hand for the blonde to shake.

"Of course! The best!" Instead of shaking Sasuke's hand, Naruto lunged at him in a rugby tackle style hug.

"Ow! Dobe, get off of me! Ouch…"

* * *

That night as all nine of the teenagers made themselves comfortable in front of the wide screened TV; Naruto slid the DVD into the drive and pressed play. 

It was pretty late, but no one was in the mood for sleep; not just yet anyway. All of the lights were out and a layer of darkness engulfed all of them. It wasn't suffocating, it was soothing.

Sasuke had laid out on one of the lengthy sofas with a blanket to keep out the cold from the night and open windows. He was taking a look around Naruto's living room and was shocked to see Sakura snuggled with…Lee. He had his legs stretched out and she had rested her head on his lap. He seemed infatuated by her presence, and was combing his fingers through her pink hair. It was almost as if Lee was (SHOCK, SHOCK HORROR) calm.

Gaara and Neji were situated in their usual place by the wall and Shikamaru had taken the armchair closest to the TV. Kiba and Hinata were cross-legged side by side to the left of the sofa the raven had taken up. Sasuke wasn't even paying attention as the first few scenes unfolded in the film. He was in his own world, where only he and Naruto existed…

Wow, he really _was_ falling fast. It was faster than the raven had expected, but every time the blonde locked eyes with him or placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, a warm feeling would rush inside him. He suspected the feeling of being love, but he wasn't ready to admit it yet.

"Hey teme, move up so I can lie down too." He hardly heard the blonde speak, but was broken from his daydreams as Naruto started shoving his legs.

"What do you want?"

"I wanna sit too."

"There's no space."

"We'll make space, now shove aside!" He succeeded in moving Sasuke enough so he could slide in under the blanket as well. The raven's heart started beating faster as Naruto snuggled up closer to him and turned the other way to watch the film.

* * *

Forty minutes later, and the film was the last thing Sasuke was focusing on. Naruto had decided that it was too boring to watch, and had turned over to sleep. He had rested his head on Sasuke's chest and one arm was draped over his stomach. The raven watched Naruto's peaceful face as he drifted into one of his deep sleeps. 

Those lips, those soft pink lips were taunting him again. He wanted to reach out and run his fingers over the length of his lips, but knew he couldn't with the room full of his other friends.

Oblivious to Sasuke, but Shikamaru was watching his face as he stared into Naruto's sleeping one.

Once the film was over and it was time for bed, Sasuke knew he had no choice but to take the dobe up to bed himself.

He clambered off the sofa first and slid his hands under Naruto's body; lifted him up and out of the room- bridal style, yet again.

Sasuke trudged up the stairs and kicked the bedroom door open with his foot. He placed Naruto down gently, kissed his forehead and pulled the covers up to his neck.

"Good night Naruto."

He then slid in under the covers as well and was almost asleep straight away. That day had been tiring and he was pretty sure he would have to wake up early the next.

* * *

**Feedback?**

**I hope no one guesses my plots. That would be more exciting!**

**Thanks for the reviews once again.**

**Have a doughnut -passes them along-**

**R&R. Love you guys. **


	6. Confessions and decisions

**Sorry this chapter took a while, I wanted it to be good and I wanted it to be long.**

**As you can tell by the title, we have CONFESSIONS in this chap. You'll have to read on and see what happens.**

**Can someone help me?**

**Firstly, I keep seeing the word 'OOC/OC' come up everywhere on and I don't know what it means. Could someone explain??**

**THANK YOU AGAIN FOR REVIEWS, THEY MEAN THE WORLD, IM GLAD PEOPLE ARE ENJOYING THIS, IT KEEPS ME WRITING. **

**Disclaimer: Ok, I'll do a deal. How about I only partially own Shikamaru? No? Kakashi? No? Sasuke? No? Neji? No? Gaara? No? Kiba? No? WHY? FUCK YOU. **

**

* * *

**

It was two days later. The guests had arrived on Sunday and had left on Wednesday; earlier that day. Sasuke was sitting in Naruto's living room reading a book, light spilled over the cream pages of his novel and created patterns which danced and swirled with each tilt of the book.

He was reading the same sentence over and over again, not really taking in anything in which it said. The raven was having an argument in his head.

_Just ask him!_

_If he lies to you again, then you'll know._

_Know what? That he doesn't trust me._

_He knows all my secrets and he won't tell me this tiny thing._

_That's why you should just ask him. Go on!_

Sasuke looked up; Naruto was sitting on the floor sketching a drawing. His hands moved with agility, strokes of soft pencil marks made themselves visible on his crisp sheet of paper. The raven couldn't make out what the blonde was drawing from his position, but he had other things on his mind right now.

Sasuke took a deep breath and put down his book, "Naruto?"

He continued sketching but nodded his head slightly, to show the raven he was listening. "Mmm?"

"Ermm, you know when you told me you weren't into any girls? Were you telling the truth?"

Naruto's hand stopped moving and he didn't look up to face Sasuke, "Yeah course."

This made the raven mad, "Why are you lying?!"

"What?" Naruto placed the pencil beside his paper and looked up at Sasuke; confused.

"You're lying to me!"

"No-no I'm not."

"You are! I heard you talking to Shikamaru the other morning!"

Naruto's eyes widened and he blushed slightly. "Ermm, it's not what you think…"

"Yes it is! You can't even trust me enough to tell me the truth about these things." Sasuke stood up out of his seat and made for the door.

"Wait!"

"There's no point…" Any other guest would have stormed out of the house and gone back to their own, but to the raven this _was_ practically his own home; so he ran up the stairs into his 'bedroom' and slammed the door.

Naruto's breath was constricting in his throat and his heart was beating a mile a minute. _Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit._

* * *

The room in which Sasuke slept in was fairly simple; a small single bed was against one wall, a double doored wardrobe lined the other and a small amount of clothes were scattered on his duvet. Sasuke liked keeping his things as organised as possible, but he was still a teenage guy. 

The raven was standing in front of the window just to the right of his bed. The sun was blazing today and a light breeze picked up leaves and made branches sway and dance. He was gripping the windowsill so tight that his knuckles were white.

There was a soft knock on the door. _Go away._ A gentle creaking noise let Sasuke know that he had entered. He wasn't going to turn around, he had been humiliated enough.

"Sasuke?"

"…"

"Sasuke?"

"The fact that you lied to me wasn't what really got to me."

"Huh?"

The dark haired boy couldn't stop himself, it was all going to come out now and he had no control over his mouth.

"I just keep imagining you with some girl who you'll love more than anyone, and it makes me feel sick."

"Sasuke-"

"I'm jealous. I'm fucking jealous okay. I'm fucking jealous that the person you'll be with isn't me. Are you happy now?!" Tears almost dared to fall from his eyes, but he stopped them.

A small gasp escaped from Naruto and his eyes widened in shock. This was when Sasuke turned around; he whipped his whole body around and looked straight into blue eyes.

"You've got it out of me dobe. Now you know. You fucking know everything. I hope you're glad." He tried to stalk out of the room but Naruto caught hold of Sasuke's wrist and swivelled him around.

"Listen to me. Let me explain."

"What's to explain? Everything is fucking crystal clear, no?" Sasuke's eyes were bitter and full of hurt.

"No. Listen to me. You don't understand."

"I think I understand perfe-" He was cut off from talking any more as Naruto had placed a finger to Sasuke's mouth.

"No, you don't. I was talking about you." The blonde slowly let his hand drop to his side and looked into Sasuke's eyes to see if he could predict his feelings.

"What?"

"When I was talking to Shikamaru and I told him I liked someone, it was you who I was talking about."

"Stop lying to me again."

"I'm not lying!" Naruto sighed and sat back on the raven's bed. "I noticed it about a week ago. I started seeing you in a different way and it scared me so I tried to put it to the back of my mind, but it kept coming back and I couldn't deny it any longer."

Sasuke was speechless. He didn't know what to say, so he sat beside the blonde and just let him explain.

"I had to admit it to myself. I had to admit that I liked my best friend and I didn't want to be _just_ friends. I was pretty sure you didn't feel the same, so I started dropping hints. Like when I told you about my past or when we played spin the bottle, that was because I thought there might be a chance I'd be able to kiss you; and I did! It was the best feeling I'd had in a while and that scared me even more. But then something amazing happened." He turned to face Sasuke and they locked eyes once again. The raven saw that look in Naruto's eyes again, but now he recognised it. It was love.

"Wha-what happened?"

"I felt you kiss me when you thought I was sleeping…"

"You felt that? Fuck…"

"I thought that meant something, but when you woke up the next morning and you were angry at me I figured I was reading the signs wrong."

"No-no you weren't. I was just angry at what I heard you talking about."

"So…Ermm…what does this mean?"

Sasuke smirked and stroked Naruto's cheek, "It means that you talk too much," He shoved the blonde fiercely backwards so he was lying on his back and Sasuke clambered on top of him, "and it also means that I can do this." He clamped his lips hungrily against Naruto's. The blonde was shocked-still at the kiss, but slowly replied by running his tongue against Sasuke's bottom lip. He allowed him entrance and their kiss became more heated and intense.

Naruto pulled back to catch a breath and Sasuke took the chance to abuse the blonde's neck.

"Uhhh…mmphh." Naruto let out moans as the raven nipped at the junction where his neck met his collarbone.

Sasuke tried pulling off the blonde's top, but was stopped when a hand held his wrists down and stopped them from moving.

"What's wrong?"

"Slow down." Naruto said softly.

Sasuke sighed and rolled himself off of the blonde so they were lying side by side on his bed. "Who would've thought that we'd find ourselves like this?"

Naruto scooted closer to the raven and rested his head on his chest. "Mmm. Not me, but I'm glad that we did."

"Yeah, me too. So…what now?" He cleared his throat and gazed up at the ceiling.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty tired and you're comfortable so you're not going anywhere." Naruto yawned and slinked an arm around Sasuke's middle; he closed his eyes.

The raven smiled to himself and pulled up the duvet so it was covering both of them. He stroked blonde hair out Naruto's face and placed a soft kiss to his head.

_This is how things are supposed to be._

_This is how things were always supposed to be._

_And this is how things should always stay._

A gentle breeze wafted through the window and covered both sleeping figures; accompanying the already comforting sunlight which warmed two peaceful faces.

* * *

When Sasuke awoke a few hours later he was surprised to feel a weight pressing down on his chest. He gazed down to find Naruto's still sleeping body pressed against his. He smiled sweetly to himself, _oh yeah._

It was like a dream. He was happier now then he had been in a while and almost felt the urge to sing. _Almost_.

He could feel Naruto stirring and wasn't shocked to find him opening his eyes and rubbing balled up fists over his sleep ridden face.

Sasuke looked down to see Naruto looking up at him. "Hey."

"Hey dobe." He rolled over so he on top of the blonde and placed tender kisses all over his face; his forehead, his cheeks, his eyelids, his lips and his jaw. Naruto squirmed and giggled at the sensation of Sasuke's lips all over his face.

The raven smirked to himself and said, "Aah, I see. So you're ticklish, are you?"

Naruto blushed and nodded.

"Perfect." Sasuke smiled and started tickling the blonde whole-heartedly. Naruto was howling with laughter now and tears threatened to fall.

"Gyaa! Stop…mhphggf…aahhaa…stop!"

"Only 'cause you're so damn cute." Sasuke nipped at the others nose with his mouth and rolled back onto his side of the bed.

Naruto pouted and folded his arms. "I'm not cute." He huffed.

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Not!"

"Yeah, you are."

"Not cute! I'm _handsome_."

"Whatever. You're still cute though."

"Stupid Sasuke-bastard." He smiled to himself, "Well, at least I'm not _pretty_."

Sasuke glared evils at Naruto, before saying, "Oh dear Naru-chan. That just earnt you extra tickles."

Naruto didn't even get a chance to cry out before Sasuke was tickling the life out of him again.

"Gaaahh! Stop! Please…mmhph…stop…"

"Say it!" The raven was enjoying this all too much and a huge grin was plastered on his usually cold face.

"Fine! Mmphh…aahh!"

"Go on!"

"I'm a cute little uke and…mmhph…Sasuke is the handsome one! Aahhh…gya! Get off of me now bastard!"

"As you wish." The raven couldn't remove the huge smile which was visible on his face.

Naruto crossed his arms, stuck his nose into the air and turned over. "Stupid Sasuke-teme." He muttered under his breath but it was just loud enough for the raven to hear.

He snuggled up to Naruto and licked the shell of his ear. "Aww. Is poor Naru-chan in a strop?" Sasuke nuzzled his nose closer to the blonde's neck and earned himself a few groans. "But don't you wuv me Naruu-chan?" His voice was a mock child's voice.

Naruto didn't make any indication he was listening, so Sasuke decided he had to take matters into his own hands. He slid his hands in under the blonde's t-shirt and traced soft patterns on his smooth back.

Still no reaction.

Sasuke began massaging Naruto's lower back firmly.

A few moans.

Sasuke started licking the blonde's shoulders, before biting, sucking and licking again.

More moans and a very annoyed Naruto. Perfect.

Naruto turned back around and placed a chaste kiss on the other's lips. "Move in."

The raven was caught off guard. "What?"

"It would be good. You practically live here anyway, so we might aswell make if official now that our relationship has changed." Naruto was twirling a lock of black hair in his fingers and watched the other's face intently.

"Sure."

"Really?!"

"Yeah why not? But what should I do with my house?"

"Can't you just call up your guardian and tell her that you won't need it anymore because you're moving in with your _gorgeous_ boyfriend?"

Sasuke smirked, "Boyfriend, huh? I like the sound of that." He pulled Naruto's face forward and kissed him deeply.

Naruto pulled back a while later, both their lungs burning from the lack of air. "Geez, you're horny."

"How can I help it when my _boyfriend_ is this _gorgeous?_"

The blonde giggled and blush covered his tan cheeks, turning them a shade of scarlet.

* * *

Naruto was seated on one of the stools at his kitchen counter; looking through takeaway menus. Sasuke appeared behind him and kissed the base of his neck from behind. The blonde lifted his arms up and linked them around the others neck, before lifting his own head up and kissing Sasuke. 

The raven took the seat next to his boyfriend and looked down at the papers he was looking through. "What are you doing?"

Naruto grinned, "Is pizza sound ok for dinner to you?"

"I'm not hungry to be honest."

"Ah c'mon! It'll be my treat."

"Go on then dobe." Sasuke watched the blonde's smiling face as he called up the takeaway shop.

* * *

Sasuke tore a small piece off of the cheese and tomato pizza he was sharing with the dobe. Naruto had already eaten two big slices and was reaching for a third. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the blonde's huge appetite. 

The raven's eyes diverted to the sheet of paper the blonde was drawing on that afternoon. It was lying on the floor in the living room. Sasuke had chosen to study photography in University, he was a fair artist, but photography was his passion. (The two of them had decided to eat dinner on the sofa)

"Hey Naruto?"

"Uhmmnofg." His mouth was full.

"What were you drawing earlier?" He pointed to the sheet.

Naruto swallowed his food and replied, "I was trying to see if I could draw a figure of a person and if I could remember the measurements, proportions and etc."

"And?"

"Didn't really work out too well."

Sasuke sighed and took another bite of the pizza.

"I have an idea!" The raven gulped and looked at his boyfriend; who had huge, happy eyes.

_Uh oh._

"Why don't you model for me?! It would be so awesome, seeing as you look pretty much like a model anyway and I need someone to draw!"

Sasuke gulped again; loudly and stuttered something, "Erm…erm…you want me to what?"

"You know, just sit still for a while so I can make a sketch of you. It's perfect!"

"Well if it that important to you dobe, fine I'll do it."

Naruto lunged at Sasuke in a violent style hug.

"Thank you! You're the best Sasuke!" His blonde hair tickled the raven's neck and he was almost pinned down on his back.

He regained his composure as Naruto sat back again and ate another mouthful. He might as well make the other blush, now that he had the chance.

Sasuke leant forwards to the blonde's ear and licked behind it before whispering softly, "Do you need any life portraits? 'Cause I'd be more than happy to strip off for you, Naru-chan."

He watched as Naruto's face went scarlet and he almost choked on his pizza.

"Err…tha-that's okay…you-you can keep your clothes on…"

The raven smirked, Naruto was reacting just how he'd expected.

"Are you sure? Like I said, I'd be more than happy." Sasuke kissed the blonde's neck and licked his lips. It was sending shivers down the others back.

"Yeah-yeah I'm sure." Naruto said and jumped out of the seat to put his dishes in the kitchen. His face now resembled a tomato.

Sasuke smiled and sat back on the sofa. The day had all happened so fast he hadn't really had any time to reflect. He was brimming with happiness, the stupid dobe made him happy.

He could hear Naruto drop things in the kitchen and curse; it made the raven smile. Naruto was the one he wanted to be with forever, he could just tell.

How would their friends take the news of their relationship, Sasuke found himself thinking? He would just have to wait and see.

* * *

**OMG WHAT DO YOU THINK? R&R.**

**IS THERE ANYTHING THAT PEOPLE WANT ME TO CHANGE/ADD/MODIFY ETC.?**

**Just tell me, kay? **


	7. Glass Doors and Whisker scars

**This is a quick filler type thing I wrote when I was bored. It's like a flashback type thing and explains what happened to Naruto's parents and how he got those whisker scars for my story.**

**It sort of fills up the time for when i'm writing the next chapter.**

**It's slightly rubbish, but -shrugs shoulders-**

**I didn't know who his mum should be, so she was just some random blonde, blue eyed woman.**

**FLASHBACK – 17 YEARS AGO.**

"_Thank you so much for doing this for us again Tsunade." Arashi's voice was calm and caring. His blonde hair was brighter than anyone Tsunade had met before, but was extremely unruly and stuck out in all directions. He ran one tan hand through his blonde locks and gave the woman a huge smile. _

"_It's not a problem Arashi. It's always a pleasure to look after Naruto-kun, he's a great kid. Besides, you should be out celebrating tonight; you don't always have two year anniversaries."_

_The blonde chuckled warmly and nodded lightly. "I guess you're right."_

_He knelt down so he was at eye level with his son. Naruto's small face was confused and he held on tighter to his father's hand._

"_Naruto-kun, I have to go out tonight. Me and mummy are going to be out late, so Tsunade will be looking after you, okay?" Arashi ruffled his son's hair and placed a warm kiss on his cheek. "We'll be here before you wake up tomorrow, I love you."_

_Naruto nodded reluctantly, but didn't release the grip he had on his father's hand._

"_Naruto-kun, how can I leave if you won't let go?" His voice wasn't harsh, but soft and warm. _

_He returned to his full height as his wife came striding down the stairs of the house wearing a long and graceful dress. It was the colour of the night sky; it made her deep blue eyes stand out. She smiled sweetly to her husband and ran a hand through her long silky blonde hair that fell below her shoulders. Her radiance seemed to fill the air and Arashi took a deep breath and said, "Wow, you look…beautiful."_

_She grinned and kissed his cheek, "Thank you honey. You look pretty handsome yourself."_

_Naruto finally released his fathers hand to run to his mother. She laughed and bent down to him. "Naruto-kun, you'll be good for Tsunade won't you?" Her son nodded and hugged her tightly. She chuckled and hugged him back._

"_We better get going; our reservation time is pretty soon."_

"_Okay honey." Her voice was silky and sweet. Naruto didn't want to let go of his mother, she was his comfort._

"_I've got to go baby. I'll see you tomorrow morning. I love you lots." Naruto pulled back and smiled._

"_I love you too mummy."(1) She laughed and kissed his cheek._

_Naruto watched as his parents walked down the driveway of their house and got into their car. He was waving frantically as his mother blew him kisses._

_

* * *

_

_Tsunade was almost in tears as she sprinted into the emergency room in the hospital. Naruto's small frame was limp in her arms and his face was covered in blood._

_A doctor ran towards her as she took deep breaths and failed to stop the tears from falling from her bloodshot eyes._

"_What happened?!"_

"_He-he was running and he didn't see the glass door. Cra-crashed right into it! It was face first!"_

_The doctor tried to calm her down as he took the small boy from her arms._

"_Please! Please-make him better!"_

"_We'll do our best Madam. He'll need lots of stitches. Why don't you take a seat? We'll call you in when we're ready."(2)_

_As Tsunade took a seat and was only starting to catch her breath, she witnessed an ambulance stop right outside of the automatic door and pull down two stretchers from the back of the van._

_As they were wheeled in and voices whirled around her head, she nearly fainted when she recognised the faces on the bed._

"_Oh no…"_

_Arashi and his wife were whisked away towards hospital rooms for immediate attention._

_Tsunade faintly heard a doctor mention that they had been in a car accident and were severely injured. She jumped up from her seat, trying to get some information out of anyone who would listen._

_

* * *

_

_That night, Naruto's parents died in the hospital and their son obtained the scars, which now resemble whiskers._

_Tsunade was forced to look after him until there was a foster parent who would take him in._

_Umino Iruka adopted Naruto and raised the blonde by himself until he was eighteen. _

_

* * *

_

**It's a bit shitty and short, I know. (Not even 1000 words! LE GASP) **

**Sorry! But you pretty much get the gist, right?**

**Hope you like. Don't really need to review, only if you want to nn**

**(1)I don't know how old kids are when they start talking, but for me, i was able to speak before i was one.**

**(2)I'm not sure what actually happens in A&E's, i've never been in one myself (thankfully), ****but let's pretend that's what happens for the sake of my fic. hah.**


	8. Perverts and geniuses

**Next chapter, gang-staaaas.**

**We have lots of Sasuke-pervert in this chap. Hope you enjoy that. Lol.**

**Guess what?!**

**I have a muse ;) Her penname is Kiba's Mewse and she's pretty kick-ass.**

**I recommend you check out her site, she's starting a fic that's ShikaNaru. I had never come across that pairing myself and I really like hers. She's a great writer.**

**Also, thank you again for reviews.**

**They were so lovely recently.**

**It literally makes me smile. Thanks so much for taking time to read this story and to even make a comment of what you thought. It makes if fun to write.**

**Another thing, I'm now NarutoNovels. You like?**

**PS: THIS CHAP IS SUPPOSED TO BE A FEW DAYS LATER COMPARED TO THE PREVIOUS CHAP. THEY HAVEN'T FUCKED YET, IF YOU'RE INTERESTED. HAH.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own. There! I said it, but it was only because M.Kishimoto made one of his thug friends put a gun to my head… o.o **

**

* * *

**Sasuke awoke to the sound of Naruto's mobile ringing on the bedside table. The blonde hadn't flinched; he was a deep sleeper. 

The raven tried to stretch and reach the device, despite the fact that Naruto had a very tight grip around his waist and one of his legs was draped over Sasuke's. He could feel the blonde's feather like breaths on his neck.

He made a grab for the phone and flipped it open; holding it to his ear.

"Yes?"

"_Sasuke?"_

"Oh, hey Shikamaru."

"_What are you doing answering Naruto's phone?"_

"He's sleeping."

"_Erm…ok."_

"What's up?"

"_I was wondering if you guys wanted to meet up today. Maybe for lunch, and then a movie. What do you say?"_

"Why not? When and where?"

"_Meet me in the local at 1:00, and could you tell the others?"_

"Sure, see you then."

Sasuke flipped the phone shut again before looking at the time; 9:00am. _I can afford another hour or so. _He put the phone back to its place and turned to face his sleeping boyfriend.

Naruto didn't soften his hold on Sasuke; it was almost as if the raven was a life source or an emergency supply of oxygen.

Sasuke couldn't help but notice how breathtakingly beautiful the blonde was. His face was perfect, and it just made things one hundred times better that his personality was amazing aswell. He stroked his soft face and whispered, "I love you Naruto."

For a few seconds nothing happened, but then the blonde cracked an eye open, scooted over more so he was practically laying on top of the other and said, "I love you too Sasuke."

The sweet smell of Naruto wafted towards the raven as he smiled widely and snaked his arms around the other's waist.

"I thought you were asleep dobe."

"Mmm, me too." Naruto buried his face in the crook of Sasuke's neck and took deep breaths as he tried to get back to sleep.

"Go back to sleep. We have time."

"Mmkay Sasuke." He put both arms around the raven's neck and buried his head further into the others neck; trying to get comfortable.

Sasuke laughed softly, the blonde's hair and breath was tickling his neck. They fell asleep with their bodies impossibly close to one another and the feelings of love and comfort seeped into the atmosphere like a blanket; covering everything in it's path.

(A/n: I've realised, they sleep a-fucking-lot in this fic. Hah. Sleep is good though. -Spesh when you share a bed with SASU-CHAN- I think it's a really powerful way of showing emotion and things.)

* * *

"Oooh. You look gorgeous." Sasuke said as Naruto padded into their bedroom from the bathroom; damp and wearing nothing except a towel.

"Stay away pervert. I'm out of bounds!"

The raven smirked, "Is that so?" He took steps forward as Naruto took steps back. It resulted in Sasuke pinning the blonde to the wall; hands on either side of his head-trapping him.

"Not now Sasuke, I have to change." Naruto complained.

Naruto's bedroom, which was now _their _bedroom, was strewn with clothes and belongings seeing as the raven was bringing his things over.

"No you don't. I like you better like this anyway." He licked his lips and started abusing the other's neck.

"Stop! It's going to leave a mark!" He said, but he couldn't stifle his moans as Sasuke moved down to his chest.

"Good. Then people will know you're _mine_."

"You don't own me teme."

"Oh yeah?" He asked in between his ministrations-he was now at the blonde's stomach.

"Ye-eahh." Naruto didn't hold back his moans now as he half-heartedly tried to push the other back.

After a good while, the raven pulled back and pouted. "Fine. But you're going to have to pay for that later. I was having fun."

Naruto kissed the other's cheek and said, "You're such a pervert Sasuke."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Not."

"Are too."

"Not."

"You are, so that's why I'm going to go change in the bathroom. Incase you grope me or something!"

The raven pouted and sat down on the bed. "Kill-joy." He muttered to himself.

* * *

Half an hour later when they were both dressed and ready to leave, Sasuke pulled on the blonde's wrist so he whipped round and he was pinned to the wall-yet again.

"Sasuke..."

Blue eyes locked onto coal ones and Naruto thought his heart skipped a beat at the intense way his boyfriend was looking at him.

"Punishment." He said this as he locked his lips onto the others.

It didn't take long for Naruto to respond and it wasn't long before Sasuke pushed him down onto the bed.

He gave the raven more access to his neck as he caused red bruises to appear on the usual tan skin. Sasuke succeeded in getting the others top off this time and gave his chest more attention.

"Aaaahh."

Sasuke pulled off his own top and kissed the blonde deeply again.

Both were too busy/distracted to hear the sound of knocking downstairs. The figure tried the door and frowned at the fact that it was unlocked. He checked downstairs before sighing and calling out their names.

No reply.

He frowned again and made for the stairs.

Naruto thought he heard a noise but brushed it off as Sasuke grinded against him; there was nothing else on his mind.

The figure checked all rooms on the second floor before reaching the blonde's bedroom. He thought he heard moans and groans as he gently pushed it open.

"HOLY FUCK! RAPE! RAPE!"

Both pulled away fast and turned to the source of the noise. Kiba was standing in the doorway; one arm out pointing to them and the other hand was clamped over his eyes.

Sasuke groaned at the interruption and Naruto was now a shade of deep red.

"Fuck off Kiba. If you can't see, we're busy." The raven's tone was dripping with malice.

_How dare anyone interrupt me with _my_ Naruto?!_

The blonde attempted to roll the other off of him, but he wasn't budging.

The distraught brunette spoke again, "BUT IT'S YOU (he pointed to Sasuke) AND YOU (he pointed to Naruto blushing underneath), AND IT'S THEM! (He was pointed to their crotches.)

"Yes, yes, thank you Kiba, but we are both fully aware of each of those things you mentioned."

The brunette began walking in circles around himself; hands tugging at his face. He finally stopped walking when he dropped to the floor in a heap; he was sitting cross-legged with his eyes tightly shut.

Naruto finally managed to pry Sasuke off of him and joined Kiba on the floor.

"Are-are you alright?"

Kiba cracked one eye open and saw the look of concern on the blonde's face.

"Err-so let me get this straight. You (he was pointing again), are with him (he jabbed a finger in Sasuke's direction; who was currently pulling his shirt back on)?"

The blonde nodded meekly and sighed deeply. "We didn't want you to find out this way. And we haven't been together long, just a few days." The raven was at his side now.

"What do you think…?" Naruto said.

Kiba managed to pull off a huge grin and pulled the blonde into a manly hug with lots of back patting and slapping.

"That's great! It's fucking fantastic!"

Now the raven was extremely confused. He stood up straight; leaning against a wall with one leg crossed over the other – toe stubbing the ground – and his arms folded across his chest. "You're pleased?"

The brunette jumped up and punched Sasuke not-too-lightly on the arm, "Course I am! You're made for each other! And maybe now, Sasuke won't be so grouchy." He winked and nudged the other with his elbow.

_He is so strange._

"Kiba?" The blonde had recovered from his major man hug and was rubbing his neck nervously. "You really think so?"

"Course. A good fuc-"

"I meant, about us being made for each other."

"Oh. Yeah, course! I could tell from the start." He grinned widely.

"Good, 'cause I thought so too!" Naruto bounded over to Sasuke and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. The raven blushed very discreetly and returned the kiss.

"Ok Ok. That's all good and all, but I came over for a reason." He crossed his arms as he said this.

"Oh yeah. Why did you burst into our house and disturb me, while I was clearly busy???" Sasuke asked.

Kiba rubbed the back of his neck and smiled in a very Naruto-esque manner. "I need a lift."

"Fine dog-boy, but one more thing, don't tell anyone else about me and Naruto, we want to tell them ourselves. Ok??"

The brunette nodded as the blonde pulled on his top and led the way.

* * *

The trio arrived at the café a little later than expected and sat down straight away; trying to jump into conversation as to not look suspicious.

Kiba kept stealing glances at Sasuke and Naruto -who sat side by side across from him- and grinned at their besotted expressions.

Lunch consisted of the raven continuously running his leg over his boyfriends, or running a hand over the blonde's thigh.

Naruto would cough loudly and try to swat the other away. Shikamaru seemed to be the only one realising these scenes going on, and a look of smug knowledge spread over his face.

After lunch, the group of friends decided on an action movie, bought their tickets and piled into the dark room. It wasn't very full, only a few teenage boys were scattered here and there.

All nine teenagers took rows near the back, but Sasuke tugged on Naruto's wrist and dragged him to furthest seats; right at the back of the cinema.

The raven stroked blonde hair behind the others ear and whispered, "Finally, we're alone."

"Sasuke! Don't go getting any ideas, everyone is here!" Naruto struggled to keep his voice as quiet as possible.

"Oh come on, it's dark in here. Let me have my fun. As long as we keep quiet…" He began licking the area behind the blonde's ear and Naruto almost let out a moan.

As the Uchiha made his boyfriend shiver and recoil, the film started out and the first scenes unfolded with immediate gunshots and with what looked like a war.

Whimpers were heard from Sakura a few rows ahead; Lee put one arm around her shoulders and whispered something inaudible into her ear. The pink-haired girl smiled and buried her head into his shoulder. It looked as if Christmas had come early for the extravagant youth lover. His cheeks blazed pink and he quietly pumped his fist into the air.

It seemed as if Gaara and Neji were way ahead of the blonde and the raven; Neji had already succeeded in getting on the red-head's lap.

As Sasuke started sucking and kissing at Naruto's shoulder, he spoke again; speaking in a smooth and soft voice. "Naruto, let's go to the bathroom..." He gave him a suggestive expression which made the blonde blush.

"We-we can't."

"We can. No one'll notice." Sasuke raised his eyebrows, "Where's your sense of adventure."

Just as the blonde agreed, Sasuke pulled him by the hand and bounded down the stairs covered in darkness and swerved into one of the male bathrooms.

It wasn't very fancy, and only held two cubicles. They were the only people in the room.

"Mmm." Sasuke purred as he pushed the other against the wall beside the door and hand dryer.

"You're not very discreet are you?"

"I don't know why we're not telling the others. I want to be able to kiss you and not care who sees." The raven leaned his body closer and pinned the blonde's arm above his head.

"We _will _tell them Sasuke, just not yet. It will probably be too much of a shock. And Sakura will probably kill me with a spanner…" He sighed as he said this.

"Who cares about her? Besides, she seems very distracted by our very own _Lee-kun_ these days to care what else is happening." Sasuke began kissing the blonde's neck and the junction by his collarbone.

"Re-ally? I hadn't noticed."

The air in the bathrooms was stuffy and the room smelt of old bleach and disinfectant. The lack of air made Naruto's head spin. He pulled his boyfriend's head up to face him and pulled him forward by the chin.

"I love you."

"I know."

Naruto pulled Sasuke closer, causing their lips to crash with force. The raven moaned into the kiss as he teased his tongue into the other's mouth and tangled his hands in blonde locks.

The rough wall of the bathroom was rubbing on Naruto's back -making his spine sore, but he didn't care; with the taste of Sasuke in his mouth, nothing mattered.

The raven pushed his hips forward roughly; causing friction. Naruto did the same, causing some sort of a pattern.

The kiss became rougher as teeth nipped and bit at tender lips.

Just as Naruto thought he would float away on cloud nine, it all came crashing down with the sound of the door swinging open and a tall, rough looking boy walked in.

The boy looked about their age, but more rebellious. His eyes widened in shock at the sight of the two males by the door and he swallowed loudly and muttered something under his breath.

Sasuke pulled back and turned to the kid; his eyes were as sharp as slits and his lip was curled in distaste, "Did you want something punk?"

The boy fiddled with his shirt collar, shook his head side to side and hurried back out of the bathroom.

"Sasuke!" Naruto said.

The raven turned back and shrugged his shoulders, "What?! He was interrupting."

"How very rude Sasu-chan." The blonde teased as he leant forward and started kissing the length of his boyfriend's neck.

"That was very rude Sasuke." Naruto's voice was muffled, "Very, very rude of you. You're so mean."

The raven tilted his head back to give more access as he held onto Naruto's wrists.

"Mhm."

Another creak was heard from the bathroom door. Sasuke turned his head in the direction of the entry –fast- and shouted, "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT NOW?!"

Shikamaru stood with his arms folded and a smug smirk was playing on his usually straight lips. "So this is the special kid you liked Naruto?"

The blonde gasped and blushed scarlet. Sasuke rolled his eyes and threw his arms up in defeat; speaking to the ceiling, "Why is the world against us?! Why Jesus, why?!" He rounded back on Shikamaru and glared-full force, "Now that you've caught us and you know, will you leave so I can continue molesting him?"

The brunette just smiled and said, "I knew it. Knew it. Sasuke you are so transparent, you should work on that."

He turned to leave and Naruto shouted out, "How did you know? I mean, about us?"

Shikamaru didn't turn back but said "They don't call me a genius for no reason." And he strode out of the bathroom.

Sasuke sunk down and sat on the bathroom floor with his arms folded across his chest and a pout was visible. "All of a sudden, I'm not in the mood."

* * *

**Is it just me, or is this chapter kind of rubbish?**

**I was reading through it, and I thought 'I can totally do better than this, why is it so shit?'**

**It made me mad at myself, but it's too late now.**

**I hope you like it more than I do.**

**I might take a bit longer for the next chap, to recharge my writing batteries and get over my creativity block.**

**R&R please.**

**Many thanks. ;)**


	9. Sketchbooks and Snapshots

**PLEASE READ**

**I'm back! With a new chapter fresh off the press. Ok, overstatement. **

**I got my creativity back. again and typed this out over the course of a few days. It was almost refreshing to have more than one day to complete it. Thanks.**

**My muse (I love saying that!) noted what was the problem with the previous chap. It was like a filler. But because I'm a lazy-ass, (I swear I'm worse than Shikamaru!) I decided that instead of redoing or adding, I'd just make this a good chapter. I hope it **_**is**_** good.**

**This chap is full of fluffy smuttiness. It's slightly subtle but has that underlay of cutesiness about it. I hope you like that though. ****It's quite slow moving and all SasuNaru-centric, so I've decided that the following chapter will focus more on the minor characters and maybe give them more of a story.**

**Bare with me. You're awesome, I swear. You're the best.**

**Thanks again. Enjoy please.**

**Disclaimer: M.Kishimoto has cooties! Ok I'm lying, but I'm still miffed he's not letting me own. **

**Plus HelloGoodbye aren't letting me own their song I used, 'Here in your arms'. It's kick-ass; you should download it if you haven't heard it.**

* * *

The crisp newspaper in the raven's hands held nothing interesting for him. He flicked to the pages which contained the obituaries and scanned the names swiftly. He was only looking for one name. With one more sweeping motion of his eyes, he declared to himself that what he was looking for was not –yet again- in today's paper. 

Sasuke folded the newspaper neatly through the centre and once more across the middle before placing it on the sofa beside him. The opposite wall was a musty cream colour and it made the raven's eyes go out of focus before focusing and blurring again. Blue-tinged bangs fell in front of his sharp eyes as he turned his head to gaze at his pale, folded hands on his cross-legged lap.

The nightmares had returned that morning. Sasuke had jerked awake in the early hours of the morning; sweating, shivering and with his own hands clamped around his neck. It seemed he was acting out Itachi's role in these dreams. Naruto had briefly stirred, noticing something was wrong from the way the raven's breath was fast and shallow, and the way his hands were quivering as he placed them on top of the duvet.

It was the first time he had dreamt of _that day_ in five days, he was almost sure they had faded away before last night, but last night only proved that what the dreams lacked in regularity, they made up for in prominence. To Sasuke, it had felt like his own sobs had grown louder, Itachi's laugh was shriller and the blood splattered on the walls was darker. It made a cold shiver run down his bony spine just thinking about it.

Just as the raven's tears trickled down his damp cheeks, Naruto would hold him in his arms, rock him forwards and backwards, and tell him that 'it was okay because he was there for him and he would never leave his side.' It had calmed him down slightly for the time being and Sasuke had apologised for waking the blonde up. Naruto was the only one who would see the raven like this; when his mask had slipped and was forgotten.

As much as he had tried to fall back into a comfortable sleep; he just couldn't. It was something he felt like he had no control over. The nightmares and the _memories_ were winning. Sasuke had promptly got up from their shared bed (giving up on the sleep he so desperately needed), given the blonde a chaste kiss on the cheek, glided down the ever steeper stairs and sunk -from fatigue and stress- on the couch.

That was where Sasuke was now. Sitting on the cool, leather sofa; killing time by counting the number of folds in his boxers as they creased over his creamy thighs.

He had currently killed five hours of mind-numbing time. The time seemed to stretch ever longer and ever slower. Like a winding path that would just grow longer with each footstep; taunting and laughing at the naïve figure who dared challenge its ways. The raven held out one fair hand infront of his face and noted the way it quivered and shook. He shook his head and tried to shake all thoughts of Itachi out of his mind. It only half worked.

He suspected the blonde of waking soon. Naruto would probably be sitting up in bed, rubbing his face and yawning any time now. A smile grew on Sasuke's face as he pictured that thought.

And soon enough the reckless blonde was ambling down the stairs with heavy steps as he emerged behind the raven. He kissed Sasuke's neck and whispered a 'good morning' before yawning and falling down onto the sofa aswell.

Naruto curled the length of his lean body onto the only available space left and rested his head of scruffy hair on Sasuke's lap.

The raven dragged the newspaper out from under the others body and a warm smile twinged at his lips as he stroked blonde hair out of his boyfriends face and behind his ears.

Tired groans escaped Naruto's throat as he shut his eyes tight and a look of pure relaxation spread across his tan face.

A few minutes passed like this. Conversation felt unnecessary.

"What happened to you this morning? You just got up, I was worried." The blonde asked in his husky 'haven't-had-a-cup-of-coffee-to-wake-me-up-yet' voice.

"I…I just couldn't sleep. Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you." Snippets of crimson and red flashed in his mind as he said this.

"It's ok. As long as I know you're ok."

"Yeah, yeah I am." Sasuke's voice wasn't very convincing.

"Hey, do you want me to make us some coffee? You look like you need to be woken up just as much as I do." The raven asked before kissing the top of Naruto's head.

"Mhm that would be nice. Make it strong."

"Course." He slithered out from under his boyfriend and replaced his lap with a cushion to support Naruto.

Both boys sat at the counter in the kitchen, swallowing down mouthfuls of hot liquid. The bitter beverage slid down Sasuke's throat, he could feel it warm up his body and awake his senses. The sensation seemed to make his frustrations and pain from that morning melt and slide away. Only just.

Naruto grinned happily, "Thanks for that. I needed it."

Music blared from the radio Naruto had just switched on and he smiled along to the song that ensued.

_I like where we are,_

_When we drive in your car,_

_I like where we are,_

_Here._

"Oooh! Sasuke I love this song!" The blonde squealed as downed the rest of his drink and turned up the music. It seemed the coffee had done him good as he was now his regular hyper self.

_Cos our lips can touch,_

_And our cheeks can brush,_

_Our lips can touch,_

_Here._

The raven even managed to forage a smile as Naruto jumped out of his chair ready to dance along maniacally to the chorus.

_Well you are the one, _

_The one that lies close to me,_

_Whispers hello,_

_I miss you quite terribly._

Sure enough, Naruto was dancing like a small kid with ADHD around the kitchen. It consisted of a lot of fist pumping, leg swinging, head shaking and spinning. The raven just watched on in delight as his dobe had the time of his life. _Dance like no ones watching alright._

_I fell in love,_

_In love with you suddenly,_

_Now there's no place else I could be,_

_Than here in your arms._

The lyrics of the song made Sasuke smile and his head unconciously nod to the beat it played out.

"Oooh guess what Sasuke?! I've just had the best idea!" Naruto had finally settled down and had joined the raven at the counter.

"What is it dobe?"

"_This song_, it should be _our _song." He looked positively delighted with himself. His smile seemed to stretch from ear to ear.

"Huh?" Sasuke wasn't really following.

"You know! Couples always have songs. They choose something romantic and when they hear it play 30 years later, both burst into tears and reminisce over their fabulous pasts."

"Ermm…"

"Pleeeeeeasse!" Naruto was doing it again. The puppy dog face. Bottom lip pushed out, hands clasped and eyes 'watery'.

"Sure dobe. Sure, this can be our song."

"Yay! That's awesome; I've always wanted a song."

"Usuratonkachi." The raven joked.

The song was still echoing in the background in all its trancey glory.

_Cos our lips can tough,_

_And our cheeks can brush…_

Sasuke leaned forward on his elbows to get closer to Naruto. Their foreheads were practically touching. "So, about this lip touching business?"

The blonde didn't need to be asked twice. He closed the gap between them for his lips to sensually join the others. It was a sweet and tender kiss. Neither spoilt the moment by letting their tongues intrude and just let the warm feel of the others lips make the magic.

* * *

Two figures joint at the hand made their way along a snaking path. The pathway was strewn with stones and tufts of grass. The sun's rays broke through gaps in the clouds and caused sunlight to illuminate everything in its trail. 

A side bag bumped against Naruto's hip and a smile tugged at his lips. The feel of Sasuke's soft skin clasped in his own made his stomach flutter in the most beautiful way.

Sasuke let his hand slip from the blonde's grasp –much to his disappointment- but it was only for him to pull the other closer and wrap his arm around Naruto's waist. This only caused the fluttering to intensify and turn into a batting frenzy.

A camera on a supportive lead hung from the raven's neck and swung softly from side to side at each stride they took.

A small number of the people situated in the park gave the couple side glances and second looks. But they could hardly care less, in their eyes they were the only one's there.

The blonde stopped abruptly and pointed to somewhere in the distance and to the left.

"That looks quite nice. Why don't we head over there?"

Sasuke nuzzled his face in the other's neck and whispered, "Sure. Besides, _you're_ the artist." Naruto smiled and led the way.

The blades of grass were long and uncut. They were the colour of emeralds; glinting and glowing in the afternoon sunshine. Naruto led Sasuke to a far corner of the park where there was a cluster of large trees, fresh grass and a good source of light. No people were in sight for a good amount of metres all around.

He sat himself down and leant against one of the many trees; Sasuke did the same.

They breathed in the scent of the air and the intoxicating smell filled their nostrils.

"This is perfect."

"You can say that again."

"This is perfect."

"Dobe." Sasuke chuckled.

Naruto laughed a breathy laugh and looked upwards into the brilliant blue sky. He had to squint but it didn't ruin the splendour.

"Who knew a park in London could be so beautiful?" Naruto asked; closing his eyes slightly and letting the soft breeze whip at his hair and face.

"Mmm. Second that." Running a hand through his glossy hair, Sasuke asked, "Where do you want me?"

This seemed to break the blonde from his trance.

"Huh?"

"For the sketch, dumb-ass. Where do you want me to sit?"

"Oh…" Naruto looked flustered and there was hint of blush; the raven could only imagine the perverted thoughts which were running through his mind right now.

"I think it would be cool so start off with one of you sitting right where you are. It could be called 'a lazy day under the shade off a tree'"

"Sure. Whatever floats your boat."

Naruto smiled contently and reached into his side bag which clunked as he lifted it. From inside it, he revealed a sketchpad along with a metal tin which housed many different pencils ideal for sketching. There were colouring pencils too and other bits and bobs but he let them stay put. For now.

Sasuke sighed deeply and sunk deeper against the tree; trying to get comfortable enough to not complain and moan for the next hour or so. He ran his hands through his locks; trying to give them more 'volume' and 'character'.

"Don't frown though Sasuke. Just look…erm…thoughtfully…relaxed?"

The raven chuckled and rearranged his features so he looked just right and more beautiful than ever.

* * *

Hours came and passed at a comfortable speed. Naruto had managed to draw five complete sketches in the minutes that drifted by. Sasuke hadn't even complained. He felt far too tranquil for such things. 

The hours that passed brought with them interesting shadows and a breeze which made the raven's flapping hair all the more interesting to draw.

All in all, Naruto was more than pleased with the outcome of his artwork.

"Sasuke! You are such a natural model! I can't believe I hadn't asked you earlier."

"Thanks dobe." He glanced over at the sheets the blonde had pulled out from his sketchpad and which housed the drawings. "You're a pretty natural artist yourself."

Naruto blushed and gazed over at his work. His absolute favourite was a sketch of Sasuke close up; the raven's had his head slightly tilted downwards and to the right, there was a beautiful sight of his one visible eye. It looked distant but soft and thoughtful at once. The other eye was covered by his silky bangs which only made Sasuke look more mysterious and intriguing. Naruto had made good work of his facial structures; the raven's cheekbones looked prominent and high, draped in creamy white skin. His hair seemed to gleam and cascade like a waterfall; framing an overall stunning face.

(AN: Do you know what would be awesome? If someone could do a fanart of that drawing I just described. I would literally die of gratitude. I could put the link on my homepage and give lots of credit. But only if you want! THANKS.)

Both boys were snapped back to reality with the sound of a frantic baby crying in the distance. It made Naruto's heart leap and clench.

Sasuke was lying against the soft grass; hands knitted together behind his head and slender legs crossed at the ankle. His eyes were fixed on the sky; it was full of so many mysteries and stories that it made his head begin to hurt just thinking about it.

_Itachi._

His mind was wandering again and he didn't like the direction in which it was headed. It hurt too much. He tried to reel his thoughts back in and noticed something which made him uncomfortable.

"Naruto?"

The blonde was sat a few metres away; legs crossed and hands folded on his lap. He seemed so engrossed in thoughts that Sasuke almost felt rude for intruding.

"Hey Naruto?" The blonde looked up and a genuine smile graced his features telling the raven that he was okay. But it wasn't enough.

"Come here."

"Huh?"

"Lay with me."

Naruto plodded over and took up the vacant space next to his boyfriend.

"What am I, your Auntie?"

"What?" Naruto looked seriously confused.

"Come closer. Don't worry I don't bite. Only if you're _really_ nice."

The blonde chuckled and scooted over so their bodies were pressed close together. Naruto sighed deeply –a comfortable sigh- and rested his tired head on Sasuke's comforting chest, one arm held on tightly to Sasuke's waist. It was almost possessive.

The raven rubbed circles over his boyfriend's back. It was relaxing and soothing.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing much." Naruto's tone was unconvincing, but Sasuke didn't keep at it; he owed him that much.

"Should we do the pictures later then?"

"Yeah."

The feel of grass between Sasuke's fingers and the feel of Naruto's breathe on his chest-felt like home. He felt more at home than he had done in weeks and it was a comfort. A pleasure.

Even the baby had stopped crying.

* * *

**I hope you liked that. There was a lot more thought in this than speaking. It's quite different. Tell me if you prefer it like this.**

**R&R. Love you always. Blatantly.**


	10. Hyuuga’s and ice water

**I'm confused about this chapter. It doesn't really do what I want it to do, but I feel like I have to post it. It starts off in the right direction but sort of does a swerve the wrong way.**

**Do you understand what I mean?**

**I've decided to try and give myself more time for each chapter, otherwise my creative juices (or whatever I have left of it) will run out and each chap will be a bit…shit.**

**Anyway, I'll let you guys make your own minds about this. **

**Thank you for your reviews once again. I wouldn't be able to do this without your support. Hah, I sound so over dramatic. **

**Disclaimer: I'm going to lay low for abit. Make M.Kishimoto feel like I've given up on the whole 'LET ME OWN!' campaign, but just as he's comfy…BAM!**

**

* * *

**

Fingers of silk and porcelain skin wandered curiously under Hyuuga Neji's shirt; travelling along the length of his lean chest and stomach almost hungrily, before yanking it up over his head with speed.

Gaara clamped his soft lips onto Neji's chest; working upwards towards his neck, then jaw, then face, before pulling the other boy into an intense kiss. He made quick work of his own top; letting it float to the ground with grace.

The pale-eyed boy pulled back-panting for air. "Hey, don't go getting any ideas, you're sister said she was going to be here anytime now."

Gaara smirked and sucked at Neji's pulse.

"Come on! We can wait till she's gone. She drove down especially to see her baby brother, I'm sure she's not keen on waiting until _after_ he's done screwing his boyfriend." Neji's voice didn't sound as sure as he wanted it to – especially as he had to stop to pant.

"Come on _baby._ Does it feel like I can wait?" The red-head pushed himself down harder on his boyfriend; making sure it was enough to make Neji moan.

"Why are you _so_ damn convincing?" Neji asked with a glint in his pale eyes.

Gaara smirked -his seductive smirk- as he popped open the button on the other boy's pants.

* * *

"HOLYMOTHEROFCHRIST!" Temari's voice was on the verge of screeching as she tried to gouge out her own eyeballs.

She had let herself into the house- _spare keys are highly useful _she _had_ remembered noting. She had travelled the short distance between the front door and her brother's bedroom with a head full of naivety and non-expectance. As the blonde twisted the doorknob, she didn't think to note the thought provoking noises which echoed inside- until it was too late. Now she was pretty certain she was going to need therapy for so many years she couldn't count it in her head.

Temari had slammed the door shut as soon as she had opened it; the booming of her voice reverberating along the white walls.

There was a faint 'whoops' from the other side of the door and another voice had replied 'I told you so'

She was really considering therapy as she stood in the small kitchen; back leant against the cool fridge door and a cup full to the brim with ice and water in her left hand. She was breathing heavily and every now and then she would shut her eyes and smack the side of her head.

Gaara and Neji shared the apartment. Though it was extremely small (two bedrooms, living room and a bathroom), it was all they could afford to rent out together without having to borrow money off relatives. The couple quite liked living together in a matchbox sized house; they called it 'cosy', others called it 'delusional'.

* * *

"Don't come any closer. I don't think I can ever look you in the eye again!" Temari's voice was on the border of joking.

A good ten minutes later both boys had emerged into the kitchen -clothed and clean- and had shuffled from foot to foot not looking the blonde in the eye.

"Err…sorry sis. I didn't expect you too…erm…walk in on us like that…err"

Neji stood further back, shielded by his boyfriend. He was blushing like a beetroot and wringing his hands together consistently.

Temari sighed and pushed off from the fridge, "Look, you're a grown boy and you can do whatever you please, but _please_ do it when I'm no where in sight. Deal?" She held out a slender hand towards Gaara and he shook it nervously.

"Yeah deal. Again…sorry…err…"

"Don't worry about it!" Her expression changed and she pulled the oblivious boy into a rib-breaking hug. His arms were limp at her sides as he tried to gasp for air. She breathed in the comforting smell of her little brother as she mumbled about how great it was to see him again.

She pulled back and punched him not too softly on the arm before smirking mischievously, "So, you top, eh?"

Gaara blushed crimson-a drastic change to his usual pallid complexion, "Temari!"

"What? Can I not be proud of my baby brother?" She squeezed his cheeks. Gaara wrenched his face out of her grasp and huffed; muttering about stupid sisters saying stupid things because they were stupid.

"_Anyway, _you know Neji right?" the red-head asked; trying to change the subject from his sex life and rubbing his sore cheeks at the same time.

Neji slowly appeared from behind Gaara and mumbled a feeble 'hello'. He was still far too embarrassed to look at her. If he had it his way, he'd be crawling into a hole any dying right now.

"Oh, I _sure_ do!"

"You are _so_ perverted."

"Shuddup! I came all the way over here for you, you thoughtless brat. Show me some gratitude." Temari placed her hands over her curvy hips and furrowed her eyebrows together. She had long cascading blonde hair which was up in pigtails today, a slender but curved figure and…big breasts. Her clothing choice for today consisted of small black shorts which hugged her behind quite abit and a long purple top.

The three of them sat down at the dining table –elbow to elbow- filling their grumbling stomachs with a late breakfast. The awkwardness had died out and conversation had moved onto more interesting matters.

Gaara chewed down the remainder of his pancakes and asked inquisitively to no one in particular, "Did you hear about Naruto and Sasuke?"

Temari's face lit up a few notches, "Naruto?! Oh, I haven't seen him in like forever! Can we go to visit him today? Please! Pretty please." She batted her eyelashes at her brother.

"Err sure. But that's not the point! Did you hear about it?"

"Hear about what?" Neji had cut into the conversation now.

Gaara continued; obviously pleased that someone was taking an interest in what he wanted to say, "Well supposedly the other day at the cinemas, Shikamaru walked in on them making out in the bathrooms! They've totally hooked up! Only Sakura and Lee don't know yet."

"No way?" Both Temari and Neji asked in unison.

"I know! I was so shocked. I didn't think that Naruto would ever fall for a dude, let alone a dude who is so dark and cryptic." The red-head shrugged and drained his glass of orange juice.

"You know, Sasuke isn't all that bad. He pretends to be all tough and emo, but really he's just a messed up kid who needs someone to love him." When Temari got all psychological it was scary.

"And how would you know?"

"I know him better than you think Gaara. You may be around him longer, but before I moved up north I was pretty close to him." Temari was no liar. Before her plans had changed and she was forced to move north for educational purposes, she and Sasuke had been quite close. She was the one –other than Naruto- who could see through the mask of steel and recognise the boy behind it. He would talk to her when Naruto wasn't around. But he had never had the connection with Temari that he had with the blonde.

It was enough though. Enough for her to notice him -him and his vulnerability.

"Sure." It was a mumbled response as the red head looked at the empty plate in front of him and groaned about stupid sisters saying stupid things to try and outsmart him.

* * *

Holidays were bliss.

Holidays were lazy.

Holidays meant lie-ins.

Holidays meant that Shikamaru was a happy boy.

He rolled over on his bed and breathed in the scent that was the afternoon.

Shikamaru languidly forced one eye open to glance to the clock on the opposite wall. 1:30pm.

_Hhmm. Not bad, but I could still stay in bed for another 30 minutes at least._

The brunette was staying at a family friend's house. They had so kindly offered him a room, because the man was his father's best friend and he and his wife were Shikamaru's godparents. They were generally nice people and Shikamaru didn't mind having to spend his holiday with them. At least they let him have his rest, right? Right?!

"Shikamaru! Get yo' lazy ass out of bed _right _now!" A thick voice echoed through the house and reached his uninviting ears.

"Geez, can't a guy get some peace and quiet around here?"

"I heard that!"

"Yeah, yeah whatever. I'm getting up already."

Shikamaru rubbed his hands over his sleep ridden eyes and yawned widely. He stretched his legs out under the duvet before whipping it off and sitting upright. This followed by lazier stretching and bone popping. The familiar sound made him smile.

The room in which he was staying in was quite big; enough room for the double bed he slept in, a double-doored wardrobe, desk, chair and a huge window which was currently open-letting breeze whoosh in and making shivers run down his bare back.

As he got up from the overly comfortable bed, Shikamaru took a detour to gaze out of the window at the outside world which called his name.

_Looks nice out today. A good day for cloud watching to be precise._

These thoughts swirled around in his brain as he picked up the towel which was so neatly folded on top of his brown desk and trudged to the bathroom.

* * *

After a not so warm shower, Shikamaru was definitely awake; he sunk down into a chair at the dining table; the creaking of the chair leg on the rough ground made him grimace and scrunch his eyes up.

"Afternoon Shika. Thanks for joining us." Asuma's thick voice dripped with sarcasm as he ruffled the boy's damp hair and joined him at the table.

"Yeah, morning…I mean afternoon." The brunette rested his head on his folded arms on the table and silently cursed all.

Footsteps could be heard coming from the kitchen and a sweet voice chorused, "Afternoon Shika. Sleep well?"

The brunette lifted his heavy head to see Kurenai waddling over to him; one hand resting on her stomach.

"Yeah, it was alright. What about you? You must be getting anxious now the due date is nearing."

Her free hand ran through her long brown hair as she waddled the last few steps to the table; only for Asuma to jump up from his seat and help her into a chair.

"Thanks honey- Yeah, I am quite nervous to be fair, but I don't want to be putting any stress on you too. Why don't you go out today? Meet up with some friends or something."

Asuma nodded in agreement.

"Are you sure? I could stay here and do some housework or something for you." Okay, maybe housework was stretching it, but he wanted to sound helpful.

"Hahaaahahaa!" Asuma's laugh filled the entire room and Shikamaru was sure he could feel the ground vibrate. "You?! You do housework?! Haha! You make me laugh!"

The brunette sneered and turned in the opposite direction; suddenly finding a painting on the wall far more interesting.

"Fine. Maybe I _will _go out." He mumbled, "Che, troublesome. And I was even considering it for a moment." He said under his breath.

"I heard that!"

* * *

The water splashed and cascaded over the white bowl as a hand ran a sponge over it's surface. He tried to ignore the feeling of someone behind him planting a trial of soft kisses along his neck.

"Sasuke, I'm trying to wash the dishes." Naruto said, attempting to sound defiant.

The raven just ran his hands down Naruto's shoulders, down his sides and stopping to rest comfortably on the jut of his hipbone he had revealed.

Sasuke licked the flesh beneath his ear and groaned in annoyance when the blonde tried to squirm away.

"I'm _trying _to wash the dishes. If _I_ don't do them, who will?"

Sasuke ignored the protests and snuck his hands under the other's top; soft fingers stroking the warm skin and running along the tight muscles. Naruto's stomach reacted to the cold touch and he laughed softly at the sensation. Where ever the raven's fingers touched, the skin heated up a few degrees but shivers ran down his spine.

"Have I told you, that you're a pervert?" Naruto asked, now stacking wet dishes on the drying rack.

"Mmm." He wrapped his arms around the blonde's middle and rested his head on the others shoulder; nuzzling his head in Naruto's neck.

The blonde sighed and dried his hands on the towel which lay crumpled next to the sink. He looked back to see Sasuke with his eyes closed and lips pursed together.

"Are you alright Sasuke?" The worry was kicking in now.

The raven sighed and held on tighter.

"It's ok, I'm not going anywhere. It's alright." Naruto attempted to stroke the other's back, but found it exceedingly difficult from the position he was standing in.

"That's good… I just…I like this…I want to be close to you all of the time. It's so frustrating." Sasuke cracked one eye open and looked up at the blue eyes which held such an intense gaze on him.

The blonde smiled a warm smile and kissed the top of his head; silky hair tickling his lips.

"I know exactly what you mean, but don't worry I'm not going anywhere." Naruto kissed the top of his head again and repeated, "I'm not going anywhere."

They were both broken from their private moment by the sound of the doorbell echoing through the house.

"I wasn't expecting anyone; I wonder who it is…I should get that."

"No don't worry about it, I'll go." Sasuke said as he reluctantly pried himself off Naruto and strided towards the infuriating noise which was now consistently going off.

He was preparing himself to shout off a string of obscenities to the person who very rudely interrupted their embrace, but as he swung the front door open his mouth fell open and no words came out.

"Sasuke!" He was pulled into a suffocating hug and was sure that a rib very nearly cracked. "Oh, it's so great to see you! Look at you, you look like a guy in lo-"

"Temari?!"

Temari had pulled back from the raven and glanced to where the noise was coming from. Naruto had come to see what all the shouting was about and was pretty certain he recognised that voice. His instincts were nearly always right.

"Omg! It _is_ you…"

The blonde broke into a half hearted jog and found himself in an armful of Temari. She squeezed him tight and swung him around; his feet lifting the ground for a moment.

Once the elder put the blonde back down, she held him at arms length and ruffled his bright blonde mop.

"It's so great to see you again Naruto. Youhaven't changed at all. Actually, that's a lie."

Her gaze flicked between a grinning Naruto and a thoroughly shocked Sasuke who was standing back with his arms folded and his brows furrowed together.

"I can totally tell you're in love! It's in your eyes!" She fixed her stare back to the blonde's face and stroked his cheek with the back of her hand. "Gaara told me. I'm so happy for you guys. It's great news."

Naruto flushed and looked down at his feet. He wasn't expecting this. He wasn't expecting another old friend to come back into his life. And he really wasn't expecting her to know about his relationship with Sasuke.

The blonde rubbed the back of his neck nervously – a habit he had picked up – and grinned at Temari. "Err…good old Gaara, right? Err…thanks…yeah…thanks."

She grinned her face splitting grin as she skipped pass the boys and came to a halt in the kitchen. Temari stretched her arms out on either side of herself and twirled slowly around in circles.

Naruto and Sasuke had followed behind her and were now watching her twirl- quite transfixed.

"It's good to be back." Temari said as she took a deep breathe in and swung the fridge door open to grab a can of soda.

The raven was still in shock. He hadn't seen her in over two years and now she had 'twirled' back into his life. Maybe it was exactly what he needed. Maybe he really needed her more than he thought. She always knew what to say to him. What to do for him. How to treat him. He hadn't realised how much he missed that sense of security coming from someone else other than Naruto, until it literally arrived back on his doorstep.

"Who the bloody hell is it now?" Naruto muttered as he stalked back to the front door.

"Yo." Shikamaru leant against the doorframe; hands in his pockets and one foot crossed over the other with the toe facing downwards.

* * *

**Tell me what you think. R&R.**

"**If I could dream at all, it would be about you."**

**Twilight, Stephenie Meyers.**


	11. Ink scribbles and ear to ear smiles

**Wowser. Double figures.**

**This chapter is like nothing else I've done before. Because, 1) Its in first person, 2) its very confusing to understand and 3) its quite short.**

**Hopefully by the time you finish reading it, you'll understand what the hell I'm babbling about. If not, you can ask me to explain. ;)**

**I was sitting on the sofa one day and the idea for this chap just swooped into my mind and I couldn't sit still until I had written it. I was itching to write it down somewhere. So here you go. The next chap will go back to our usual SasuNaru storyline.**

* * *

I don't remember when it happened. When things changed. When my feelings just stopped…feeling and turned themselves into something else.

Was it recent?

Was it always there but I had never realised or noticed. Maybe I'm just tragically oblivious.

Maybe what I had told myself I was feeling wasn't really true- just some figment of my imagination that kept me in with the 'crowd'. But I was so sure of it. I even have the scribbles at the back of my old textbooks etched in pink ink to prove it.

But then again, what can pink scribbles prove?

They can't prove what I'm feeling now. I'm not even completely sure of what this is I'm feeling, but I have a pretty good idea. It didn't take me long to come to terms with it- much faster than I would have imagined.

It's strange really, how something that had felt so true in the past, feels so…fake now.

Maybe it wasn't completely fake.

Maybe there was some truth to it all- just not enough. Not enough to make it real.

Yes. I can admit it to myself now. It wasn't real.

I can't help but feel ashamed. Feel ashamed of myself and embarrassed. I must have embarrassed others with it aswell. I feel like maybe I should apologise and start things over. Differently. On a new page. With these new thoughts and feelings which change everything that was and everything that will be.

It's insane but at the same time completely normal.

Does that make sense?

It does to me. It makes all the sense in the world.

All the sense I need to make my head whirr with happy thoughts, confusing thoughts, sad thoughts, and intriguing thoughts.

I think now, when I look at him-it will be different. Completely different. Maybe he'll stop sneering at me now, stop glaring, stop fuming, stop closing his eyes and pressing his two index fingers to his temples. I hope so much.

Another thing that shocks me is what I had said to him in the past. It makes me angry with myself just thinking about it. I was so stupid. So young. So immature. I understand now.

I think I have matured a lot lately – in the past few days, weeks –who knows?

I sure as hell don't.

All I know is that every time I close my eyes and picture **his**face – the one person I'm sure about - it makes my heart thud harder, louder and a smile twinges at my lips – forcing it to be known among my other features.

I remember the day. The day when all my thoughts crashed downwards into one big mound and new ones took their place. Authentic thoughts. It makes me happy just thinking about it.

Although I think I've got this all worked out, everything in its right place, it still doesn't make as much sense as I would have liked. It's crazy, confusing, heart warming and a hell of a lot of other things I can't think about now or my head will explode.

But then again, I guess what people say is correct –about love. It's crazy.

These thoughts are all spinning in my mind at a mind blowing pace as I push off from the wall I'm leaning against and shake my pink hair behind my shoulders. It cascades downwards.

The sun is beating down on me – causing my skin to heat and beads of sweat to form on my forehead, but it doesn't matter, nothing matters. Nothing matters, because he's coming towards me, he's coming to meet me, he's getting closer and that ear to ear smile is spread across his face. It's **him**

I can already feel my heart thumping loudly against my rib cage, almost as if it wants to jump right out of my chest and be free. My palms are sweating, but it has nothing to do with the weather.

I'm going to tell him.

I'm going to tell him _today._

I'm nervous, but I know I have to do it. Otherwise all those sleepless nights will start catching up with me and I don't know where I'll be left.

He's only a foot away now. His usual attire stands out from the crowd – almost glowing.

He raises one hand in the air – at face level – and grins wider now.

I suck in the air I need so desperately and with a breathy voice I say, "Hey Lee."

Everything is okay now. Nothing else matters anymore. Nothing. Because **he's **here.

* * *

**Haha. Get it now??**

**Tell me what you think. R&R.**

**Lots of cyber love; bucket-fulls. **


	12. Frustrations and photo frames

**Sorry if my last chapter kind of spoilt the flow for some. It was just something I really wanted to do. Thanks for sticking it out with me.**

**It's funny because this chapter didn't originally exist. The current chapter 13 was originally chapter 12, but I thought it was too much of a skip and the event in this chapter was needed quite a lot for their characters to progress and it wouldn't really be an option to put it in later.**

**Disclaimer: I'm starting a campaign. Join me! We'll march outside M.Kishimoto's house with signs that say 'GIVE US SASUNARU OR WE'RE PULLING THE TRIGGER.' **

* * *

It was a well known fact that when Temari wanted something, she would get it. Like the time at the supermarket, when someone took the parking space she had been waiting for. Temari stormed up to the car's window and stood there shouting obscenities until the driver backed out and gave her the space.

Other times she was more subtle about the things she wanted. Forming up little plans in her mind and keeping discreet until the prize was hers.

Mainly she would yearn for small things like objects or food, but sometimes they were larger or more important to her.

And now she had her eyes set on something, or let's say someone, she wanted.

From the moment she set her eyes on him –leaning against that doorframe like a god- she knew that that was the person she wanted. And she would have him.

* * *

Sasuke was annoyed. Well maybe not annoyed… Anxious maybe? Frustrated. Sexually frustrated. Yes. That was what it was, he was sexually frustrated.

And it didn't help the situation when Naruto was prancing around in only his boxers and bending over to fiddle with things on ground level – giving Sasuke a very nice view of his ass.

He had told himself that it wasn't Naruto's fault. It wasn't Naruto's fault that he wasn't ready or prepared for a relationship on that level. The blonde had never had a serious relationship with a guy. Sasuke was his first. So it was understandable.

There was a time when he had had a long term relationship with a girl. Sasuke had witnessed it. It had started off well, infatuated by each other, but the break up wasn't as nice. Messy really. It's a pretty big kick in the guts when you catch your girlfriend in bed with another man. Naruto was low for a few weeks, but a lot of alcohol and laughing brought back his cheery self. It was a relief really.

Sasuke assumed that after that traumatic break up, Naruto wouldn't want to have any more serious relationships – just some fun. And that's what it had seemed like.

It was ironic really. The way that before they were with each other, Naruto was a serious ladies man and Sasuke was well a…man's man. Not a man whore per se. But he had his fair share of flings. Nothing serious. Nothing as intense as the way he felt for the blonde.

And in that sense, Sasuke could understand if Naruto would want more time before he jumped head first into a sexual relationship.

The problem was that the raven wasn't the most patient person to make wait. Everytime he saw Naruto walk around half naked or when he blushed and looked away, Sasuke would have an urge to throw him on the bed, rip his clothes off and screw him senseless.

So there was the problem. He couldn't.

That would make any self respecting teenager frustrated, right? Right?

It wasn't like they didn't do other things. Sure they did…stuff. But Sasuke wanted to do _it_. He wanted to do_ it _and he wanted to do it_ now._

Was it normal for him to think about it so much?

_Does Naruto think about it as much as me?_

_Maybe I _am_ just a pervert._

Sasuke sighed and stretched out his stiff limbs. He had been lying down, with his hands resting comfortably under his head, on his bed for most of the morning now.

He had decided that he was going to relax for the most part of now; watching Naruto rushing in and out of the bedroom, fiddling with things in the room, rushing out and vice versa.

The blonde seemed to be extremely jumpy and twitchy, Sasuke noticed.

He had told the raven that he would have to rush out soon to 'run some errands' and that he would be away for most of the afternoon. He hadn't given Sasuke a clue to what he was up to and Sasuke hadn't asked. It wasn't his place really, was it?

Sure his boyfriend could be jumpy all morning, tell him something secretive about having to go out and just hope that the raven accepted it at that. Sure. It wasn't like they were joined at the hip or anything.

Besides, Sasuke had his own plans for that afternoon.

The high pitched ringing from the house phone downstairs broke him from his musings.

"Sasuke! Could you get that?" Naruto asked, his voice reverberating around the bathroom walls.

He grumbled a 'yeah' and dragged his body off the bed to make the long journey down the godforsaken stairs.

It was ringing off the hook now. Sasuke pulled the corded phone off the wall and pressed it to his ear.

"Yes?"

"_Sasuke?"_

"Iruka?"

It took him by surprise; he wasn't expecting a call from the man now.

"_Yep. How are you Sasuke-kun? I see you still spend most of your time at Naruto's house. Or I should say my house. Seeing as I still pay the bills, it's in my name and I didn't _actually _say it was his…hoho… Anyway! Sasuke-kun! How are you?" _

Sasuke had to take a breath as he tried to string a sentence together. Iruka's random rambles always got him tongue-tied.

"Ermm…yeahh. About that, Naruto kind of asked me to move in… I'm here 24/7 now. I hope you don't mind…"

There was a moment of silence and for a minute Sasuke actually expected Iruka to start shouting. Instead he heard the muffled sound of him shouting something to someone else in the room he was in-it sounded like he was covering up the mouthpiece with his hand.

"_Kakashi! You owe me twenty bucks!"_

The raven was definitely speechless now.

There was another muffled reply as Sasuke strained to hear.

"_No way?! How did you know? That's not fair!"_

"_Well he _is_ my son. I know everything."_

Sasuke cleared his throat and tried to get his mind around what just happened.

"You bet on it?"

Iruka was back now.

"_Not really bet on it… Well…yeah…we kind of did. It's just that…"_

"Don't worry about it. I'm not bothered." This was true. He wasn't. He was just surprised and maybe slightly taken aback.

"_Err…so, where's Naruto? You haven't tied him to the bed or anything kinky like that, have you?"_

_Is it alright for him to talk about his son like that?_

Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted by a very appealing image of Naruto tied to the bed, naked and flushed. He shook his head violently to rid all perverted thoughts.

"Erm, no. He's in the bathroom. He told me to pick up instead."

Iruka chuckled a hearty chuckle and Sasuke could just imagine his smiling face.

"_Okay Sasuke-kun. I just called to see how you two are. Just tell Naruto I phoned."_

"Sure."

"_Bye!"_

The raven slammed the phone back to the receiver and caught his breath back. He couldn't understand how a full grown man could be such a child. Then again, Naruto was eighteen and he acted like a nine year old…

* * *

"Ouch." Sasuke winced and wrapped a hand around the index finger on his left hand.

The photo had made a clean cut on his finger and one small drop of scarlet liquid oozed out of the gash. The deep red colour looked particularly dark against his snowy white skin.

He stood up from his cross-legged position on the bedroom floor to find a plaster to place over his cut.

Naruto had left to run errands a few hours ago; leaving Sasuke home alone. He had decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to fix up the surprise he had planned. Not a big surprise. Just something small, but important all the same.

Earlier that day the raven had rushed out to pick up a package from the photo processors. It was the photos they had taken that day at the park.

Naruto had seemed to have forgotten about them, but Sasuke had sent them off to be processed on the very same day. He had planned to put them into the fancy new frames he had purchased and scatter them throughout the house for the blonde to find when he returned.

There was one place he especially wanted to place one.

The wall to the right of the staircase was Naruto's photo album. Like steps throughout his life, he and Iruka had filled nearly all the space with photo frames.

The first frame was always the blonde's favourite; a picture of him with his parents – he was less than a year old and wrapped in light blue blankets. The photos would continue like that. They varied from pictures of Naruto as a kid with Iruka, him with friends, a photo of Sasuke and Naruto – arms around each others shoulders, the first day of secondary school, last day of year 11 and so on.

Now that a new chapter in both of their lives had begun, the raven wanted a record of it. Not for bragging purposes. Don't get him wrong. He just wanted to have that special memory on the wall for him to smile at.

Sasuke cursed under his breath as a burning sensation coursed through his fingers due to the paper cut.

He was flicking through the pile of photos – choosing the best ones – trying to find which one would go on the 'staircase album'.

He paused to get a good look at the picture which slipped out of the pile; almost as if it wanted to be noticed.

It was a shot of Naruto kissing Sasuke's cheek. The blonde had his eyes squeezed shut and although his lips were firmly on the others cheek, you could tell that they were pulled into a grin. The raven's lids were half closed, blush was painted obviously on his pale cheeks and he was smirking softly.

_Perfect._

Sasuke slid the photo into a large silver frame and flipped it around to get a good look.

The pain in his finger was slowly slipping away…

* * *

It was around 6:15 pm when the front door creaked open for Naruto to slip inside. It was still light outside and large white clouds had gathered in groups around their house.

He stepped softly through the house until he found Sasuke sitting at the kitchen counter – a sandwich in hand. The raven looked up and smiled at him.

"Hey Stranger."

Naruto blushed and crept closer so he could take up the empty seat across the counter.

"Hey. Sorry, I didn't think I'd be out that long. It took longer than I expected…" Naruto started wringing his hands together and his gaze would jump from wall to wall.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke took another bite from his sandwich and watched as Naruto twitched and looked up sharp.

"Yep. I'm great."

"That's good to hear."

The raven wasn't convinced. Naruto's voice sounded fake and he'd been fidgeting all day. The blonde jumped out of his chair, gave Sasuke a chaste kiss on the lips before mumbling something about needing the bathroom.

Naruto's hand was firmly closed around the bag which swung and hit his hip with every step. He practically leaped up the stairs two at a time and soon after the click of the bathroom door was heard.

Sasuke was worried now. The blonde had been so oblivious he hadn't even noticed the extra frame nailed to the wall on his way up the stairs. Sure he was oblivious nearly all the time, but he would nearly always glance at the photos which hung by old nails if he walked past it.

-

An hour later and they had both finished eating their dinner. Sasuke washed the dirty dishes, dried and put them away while Naruto flicked between channels on the TV.

Sasuke crept up behind the blonde and snaked his arms around his neck; kissing the place behind his ear. Naruto flinched slightly but sighed and closed his eyes.

Naruto seemed calm for the first time that night and sighed again before speaking, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"For acting strangely today." He'd turned his head round and was looking straight into the deep, dark eyes that held such emotions without words.

Sasuke smirked. "That's alright. Everyone's allowed to be strange sometimes."

"Mmm. I just don't want you to think that there's something wrong. There isn't. Everything's perfect. You're perfect." Naruto pursed his lips together before smiling softly and running his hand through Sasuke's hair. The raven was convinced this time.

"Hey, I want to show you something."

"Huh?" Naruto pulled his hand back and curiosity spread over his face.

"Yeah. I'll show you what I was doing today while you were out being strange."

Naruto seemed even more curious now; standing to follow the raven who was leading the way.

Sasuke halted at the top of the stairs and turned back to face the other. "What do you think?"

Naruto's brows pulled together as he looked inquisitive. The raven spread out his arms and one hand pointed in the direction of the last frame hanging on the wall.

It took the blonde a while before he noticed the newly hanging photo. His expression turned from confusion to realization to pure happiness. "Aaaahh! I love it Sasuke. It's brilliant!"

The raven smirked smugly, "Good. I got a bloody paper cut from those sharp bastards."

Naruto laughed and climbed a few more stairs so he was at the same level as his boyfriend. He wrapped arms around Sasuke's waist and pulled him into a hug, "You are_ so_ romantic, aren't you?"

They stood motionless for a while, in each others arms until Naruto pulled back and led Sasuke up the few remaining stairs and into their bedroom. The raven followed obediently and wondered what the sudden change in expression on the others' face was.

The blonde closed the door with a soft click and sunk down onto the bed. The curtains were firmly closed making shadows dance across the floor due to the light streaming in from under the gap in the door.

Sasuke inched closer and pulled open the first draw on their bedside table. He pulled out a second frame and propped it up on the surface. Turning to face Naruto he smiled and said, "There. It's officially our room now."

Naruto smiled softly and pulled Sasuke down to kiss him. The blonde shifted slightly, letting Sasuke clamber on top of him; not breaking the contact between their lips once.

Tongues danced and moans escaped.

Pushing on the ravens chest with his hand, Naruto pulled back to catch a breath. His lungs were fit to burst and his face was a faint shade of red. He looked into the onyx eyes that were glazed over with lust and that asked the question without words, 'why did you stop?'

Naruto blushed even more now, if that was possible and cleared his throat. Sasuke's arms were on either side of the blonde's head, holding him up, and his legs were resting comfortably between the others.

A long tan arm reached out towards the side and under the bed. He broke the eye contact to shift his body so he would reach for that object his impatient hand was searching for.

Sasuke watched on in curiosity as Naruto produced the bag he was carrying around all of that day. He kept his eyes on the bag as he unzipped it and dug a hand in.

"This is why I was out today." Naruto whispered as he pulled out a tube from the bag.

The raven's heart seemed to skip a beat as he recognised the contents in the tube. _Woah. No wonder you were jumpy today._

"I-I don't want you to stop this time." The blonde's voice sounded certain as he looked up to meet the others gaze. He dropped the bag back onto the floor and let the hand which held the lube fall limp to his side.

Sasuke leant in and started kissing a trail along Naruto's neck, before saying quietly into his ear, "Are you sure this is what you want?" Sure this was what Sasuke wanted. Hell, this was what he had been waiting for, forever now! But he wasn't going to force his boyfriend into doing something he wasn't ready for. Even if it was sex. The thought was extremely appealing however. _Please say yes. Please say yes._

He could feel Naruto's heart rate speed up and the raven's warm breath causing shivers to run down the other's back.

"I'm sure." The blonde moved his head so he was facing Sasuke's. He ran a warm hand across the pale skin and said with as much confidence as he could muster when his heart was beating a mile a minute. "I want you."

"As you wish." The raven leant in and captured warm lips that seemed to radiate hunger.

One hand cupped Naruto's face and the other was slowly drawing circles on the back of his neck.

* * *

**I try to get round to replying to every review. Sorry if I don't reply to yours. It takes time or I may forget or I might just think that I've already replied to it…if you know what I mean…?**


	13. Flashbacks and TV Bulletins

**IMPORTANT! READ.**

**I just wanted to clear something up. Lots of people were reviewing and asking me to continue with the sex scene, but I'm REALLY sorry, I don't write lemons. At all. Heck, I read 'em, I just can't write them. I can't. Don't corrupt my innocent mind :collapses in tears: **

**I'm really sorry for inconvenience, so to make it up to people; review NUMBER 107 gets a dedicated one-shot. They can choose the plot, the characters and what happens etc. Only rules are; no lemons, or other crazy sexual acts, and no SASUSAKU :spits: That relationship is scum! We spit on scum:Spits again: MUHARHARRHARRHAAHAA. :cough:**

**Yes, thank you for reading that. But no promises to when those one-shots will be done. School starts soon and I'll be swamped. I'll try my best though :smiles: Same with the next chaps.**

**This was fun to write. **

**In the flashback, doesn't Sasuke seem so sweet? Slightly crazy, but adorable?!**

**Disclaimer: K.Masashi said 'the day it rains naked bishonen men will be the day you own'. :runs to the window with binoculars and a blanket: THESE BABIES WILL BE MINE! MUHAHA! –One week later- I WILL NOT GIVE UP!**

* * *

The constant buzz from the television wasn't palpable, more like subtle background noise; buzzing and whirring around the room. However, the figure who was already halfway out of the doorway heard the name which was mentioned, as clear and distinct as if someone had shouted it into his ears.

His whole body tensed and his fists automatically clenched into tight balls; almost breaking skin. He could feel the blood pumping around his neck as he strained to hear what was being mentioned on the TV at the same time as trying to block it out altogether.

"…_alleged sightings…__**Uchiha Itachi**__…borders of England…with one other man…dangerous…wearing…black and red cloaks…contact…police…"_

Sasuke failed in hearing the rest of the news bulletin as his mind blanked out and only one image replayed itself in his mind.

_The frail bodies of his parents lay lifeless and broken on their bedroom floor as the raven sobbed and prayed. The image skipped forward to his brother's shrill laugh and his helpless pleads._

The walls seemed to spin around him, as Sasuke attempted to keep his balance. His hands found their way to his head as he willed the flashbacks to go away. _Please…please_

"Sasuke? Sasuke?"

The raven was only half aware of the frantic calls from Naruto in the kitchen. He couldn't even remember the reason why he wanted to leave the room in the first place anymore.

Sasuke slowly made his way over to the sofa so he couldn't risk falling over. Each stride felt longer than it should, and his head was pounding much worse now. Sitting down didn't help; he felt fragile and sick-sick to the stomach.

With his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands; Sasuke let his lids close slowly and groans unconsciously escaped from his tight throat.

"Sasuke?!" Naruto was now beside him, eyes wide in worry and hand outstretched.

The blonde turned his attention to the TV in the background and gasped loudly as an image of Itachi flashed on the screen.

The news bulletin was just finishing up and was moving onto less important matters like; rises in house prices and…global warming.

The raven wasn't aware of the fact that he had started rocking backwards and forwards now; a slow rhythm that kept his brain from exploding at that exact moment.

He could feel the seat of the sofa sink lower as Naruto joined him. It was early evening now and the curtains had been drawn shut to only leave the light glow from lights overhead to illuminate the blonde's front room. The blanket of darkness was slowly suffocating Sasuke in its silence and his throat tightened as his breath constricted.

He couldn't think straight. Nothing made sense. There was no logic left. The only conclusion he could come to was that Itachi was back –after ten years- and he was after Sasuke.

It seemed that Naruto was speechless too. His usual cheery chatter and hyper antics had been deflated to leave a child shocked to the bone and lost for words.

It felt like hours passed in that suffocating darkness, when they had only endured a painful minute or so.

Sasuke dared remove the hands covering his face as he lifted his head up and took a deep breath. However, he couldn't lift his eyelids; they felt heavy and tired – closed shut to hide the bloodshot eyes behind them.

Naruto cleared his throat and with a scratchy and deep voice he said, "I won't ever let him hurt you again."

It was silly, but Sasuke felt like that was the right thing to say at the right moment. No more and no less. The blonde said nothing else after that, he sat still and silent watching the raven quietly as he failed to show a smile.

It felt right at the same time as feeling so wrong. He wanted to smile at what Naruto said, because it was true; he felt safe with him, like no one could dare touch him if Naruto didn't want them to. But at the same time he knew that was impossible with the murderer they were talking about. Nothing could and nothing would ever stop Itachi. That was what scared Sasuke the most.

Surprisingly enough the only emotion which filled his being at the moment was this ominous feeling of fear. The anger would come soon enough though; boiling and burning within him.

* * *

That night both boys ate dinner with a sense awkwardness and tension filling the air. So thick, it was a surprise they couldn't see it.

Naruto didn't say anymore about the particular subject of Sasuke's murderous brother being back than he had already done. They talked about unimportant things at dinner and both pretended that everything was normal, when it couldn't be any further from the norm.

Sasuke's mind didn't once leave the thought of Itachi. He had always subconsciously expected this to happen, just not this suddenly. It may have been ten years since he had last been face to face with his brother, but the raven felt like it wasn't long enough. He hadn't had enough time to live his life.

To him, this proved his death to be inevitable. The return of Itachi just justified the fact that he didn't have much longer left. And it felt unfair. He wasn't afraid of death, oh no. He was afraid of being without the ones he loved. Afraid of being without Naruto. Afraid of being along again; just like all those years ago.

After the terrible death of Sasuke's parents, he told himself that he would never again allow himself to get close to someone. All throughout his primary years, kids would try to befriend him, but the raven would brush them off and keep to himself. The teachers thought he was just antisocial; a shy and confused kid.

He gained himself a reputation of being cold and rude. However during his first week in secondary school Naruto happened. At first, Sasuke would push him away like he did with all the others, but Naruto was persistent; trying everyday to start a conversation with the raven. It took the blonde a whole month, but eventually he convinced Sasuke to talk to him and sit with him at lunch.

This led to friendship; his first real friend since he was eight. And with Naruto came his other friends. Soon Sasuke learnt that it was okay to befriend others and to care about people. He didn't have to always look behind his shoulder and shiver in fear. It was Okay.

It felt so fake now. So unreal. Why hadn't he just stuck to his methods? Just stayed alone? He wouldn't be in this mess now if he had. But it was too late. It was too late to change.

XxXxX

With the covers pulled up to his chin, Sasuke lay in bed; wide awake. The thought of sleeping sounded absurd to his ears. The raven expected Naruto of being fast asleep, so when his soft voice spoke out to him, he jerked and gasped out loud.

Naruto turned to face Sasuke; his own cerulean eyes locked onto coal ones.

"Sasuke?"

"I thought you were asleep." He managed to forage a smile from somewhere.

"I couldn't sleep." Naruto chewed on his bottom lip and his gaze shifted to search the ceiling and walls; anywhere but Sasuke's eyes.

"Me neither."

The blonde's eyes found his again and he could detect a seriousness that wasn't there a minute ago.

"I-I want you to promise me something."

"Anything." He could tell where this was headed.

"Do you…do you remember what you told me all those years ago? About…Itachi? About what you wanted to do? About what your life was about?"

Sasuke's eyes skimmed the darkness as he sighed, "Yeah."

"And-and do you remember what I told you?"

"Like it was yesterday."

There was silence for a moment as Naruto searched for the right the words to say.

"I want you to promise me that you'll listen to what I said." Sasuke sighed and shut his tired eyes. "Promise me Sasuke." Naruto's voice sounded desperate.

The raven's lifted his lids with great difficulty and saw the look on the blonde's face; he looked fraught and pleading.

"I promise."

Naruto released the breath he wasn't even aware that he was holding in and reached out one hand from beneath the duvet to slowly run his fingers across Sasuke's pale skin.

"I-I don't want to lose you…"

The raven moved into the touch and realised how everything felt ten times better with Naruto there; touching him.

Sasuke placed his own hand over the blonde's and held on tightly.

**FLASHBACK**

_His foot seemed to have a life of its own; heel jumping up and down. Sasuke placed his hands on his knees, trying to will his feet to stay still._

_They continued jumping and he had to swallow to keep calm. Breathing felt exceedingly difficult to do._

_Naruto sat across from him on the sofa; chewing on his bottom lip and looking anxious and curious at the same time._

"_It's the reason why I wake up in the morning. The reason why I go to sleep at night. The reason why I breathe at all. The reason why I bother opening my eyes. The sole purpose of my survival." Sasuke's voice was calm but his body looked otherwise; foot jumping, fingers twitching and eyes wide- fixed on the floor._

"_I-I don't understand… What is?" Naruto sounded nervous, but he kept his front._

"_Killing Itachi of course." He looked up to stare the blonde in the face. His eyes were red and dark circles under his eyes indicated that he hadn't slept well. He had been up all of the previous night; training and studying. Many mug-fulls of coffee were definitely involved._

_Naruto gasped and his hand flew up to his mouth._

_There was a minute of silence as the words slowly sunk in. The only noise coming from Sasuke's heel hitting the floor and the ticking of the wall clock._

"_Sasuke…" The blonde had inched closer and was only a foot away now._

"_The sole purpose of my survival." He repeated, almost frustrated, as if Naruto wasn't understanding._

_When Naruto didn't say anything, Sasuke looked up to see his worried expression._

"_He wants to break me. Kill me. I won't let him. He wants me to shiver in fear everyday. He wants me to count the days down to the one where he returns and finishes the job."_

"_Sasuke…" Naruto couldn't find the right words to say._

"_If I get rid of him first, if I eliminate the threat, I'll be able to have a normal life. I'll be able to have a whole nights' sleep." His voice was unusually cheery and a grin was plastered across his tired face. Something about the smile made Naruto nervous._

"_Listen to me." The blonde had got over the initial shock of Sasuke's confession and knew that he had to say something. His friend was in trouble._

_Sasuke locked his bloodshot eyes onto Naruto's blue ones._

"_You can't live like this. You can't live your entire life waiting for that one day where you can get that revenge which seems so sweet to you right now."_

"_Bu-"_

"_Listen." Naruto had now crouched down in front of Sasuke – one hand on the raven's thigh. It seemed to calm the jumping._

"_Right now revenge might seem like the right thing to do, but you need to trust me on this, it's not." The raven's eyes seemed lost and his face drained of all its energy._

"_Let's pretend that you do succeed. You wouldn't have eliminated a threat, a murderer; you would have gotten rid of your brother."_

"_My brother _is_ a murderer." The frustration was back._

"_Sasuke you're not listening. That's not what it will feel like. The huge gaping hole you can feel right now won't close up. Instead, it will grow and pretty soon all you'll feel is emptiness; an emptiness that you won't be able to fill, because it will be too late."_

_Sasuke broke the eye contact and watched Naruto's still hand on his leg as he muttered, "You don't know that for sure…"_

_The blonde lifted Sasuke's chin with his free fingers to look him in the eyes once again. "Do you trust me Sasuke?"_

_He nodded._

"_Then you'll listen to what I'm saying. Itachi is dangerous, more dangerous than any of us can predict. You'll get hurt."_

_The raven looked ahead at something behind Naruto's shoulder, trying to avoid the eye contact._

"_Sasuke, you need to give this up. I'm asking you to listen to what I'm saying. Please…" His voice was on the brink of begging._

"_I-I don't know if I can…"_

"_You can! I know you. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for. Please, just try."_

_Sasuke sighed and dropped his head. "I'll try." He spoke so quietly it was hard for Naruto to decipher what he said._

_Protective arms found themselves around Sasuke's body. Naruto spoke into the raven's hair._

"_Besides, you won't be alone. You have friends, friends that want you here; people who care about you. Aren't they worth waking up in the morning for?"_

_Sasuke nodded once again and closed his eyes; gaining comfort from the warm arms that wrapped themselves around his frame._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

The memory was so clear; Sasuke even remembered what the blonde was wearing. The comforting smell of his hair. He had never stopped to thank Naruto. He was in a bad time then -eating, breathing, sleeping revenge. He was on the path of self destruction. If Naruto hadn't given him that talk, Sasuke wasn't sure he'd even be here right now.

It had taken him a long time. It wasn't easy. No, no one said it would be easy, but he had managed it. With the support from Naruto, Sasuke had finally succeeded in letting the goal of revenge slip away. He didn't know how it worked, but by just managing that, the hole he felt shrunk by a fraction.

Now that he thought back on those memories, if felt apparent that his feelings for the blonde were always there, just covered by painful, more prominent feelings. He only needed a small gesture, something heartfelt, for the feelings to be uncovered and revealed.

* * *

The anger and hatred hadn't returned yet. There was no boiling of rage within him. It was a strange feeling.

As Naruto pulled him into his strong arms, Sasuke felt unusually calm. He let himself be held and dared to close his eyes. Just as he expected, as soon as he cleared his mind of all thoughts, unconsciousness washed over him.

* * *

**Mmm, more sleeping Sasuke.**

**This chapter felt short, but to the point. So I guess it can get away with its shortness.**

**Btw, I've written a spesh one-shot. Go read it! And abuse the review button. :smiles:**

**I'm in the mood for cake :Skips away!: CAKEO!! HERE I COME.**


	14. Lighters and Perfection

**This chapter is a shortie. A really short, shortie. It's needed though, so sorry! Next chap will get back on track and at full length. **

**Sorry Lu-Chan/muse(I have decided I shall call you Lu-Chan from now on! Muhar! You get no say! Muharr :cough: ermm, you like?), I know you hate Itachi but he has to come into this fic! Muhaha. Don't worry; I'll make him crazy, just for you. :giggle:**

**Btw, did anyone notice that I changed the summary???**

**Enjoy, my human faced minions.**

**Disclaimer:DISCLAIMS:DISCLAIMS:DISCLAIMS:CRIES: That hurt. **

* * *

The dark haired man sighed and sunk down into the chair, whipping his cloak as he did. He fished inside one of his pockets and produced a pack of cigarettes. He pulled out a lighter aswell and lit the cigarette as he placed it between his lips. 

He held the smoke in his lungs for a few seconds before breathing it out of his tight lips.

"It's good to be back." He said, turning his attention to the bulky man who had just entered the dingy room and sat down in a vacant seat.

"Of course, Itachi-san." Kisame answered; an inhuman smirk visible across his face. His skin seemed to be a shade of blue and grey-indicating that he wasn't of perfect health.

Itachi sneered and his tongue darted out of his mouth to lick his dry lips.

--

He was back. He was back after ten years. And he was back with a vengeance.

Itachi had laid low for all those years; gaining power, gaining allies. He had created an organisation – The Akatsuki – and was the main man with power.

For years, the police organisation had tried to hunt him down. Going to all measures to ensure his capture, but nothing worked. There were times when they were extremely close, only putting half a foot wrong, but Itachi was better. Much better. He was always one step ahead, sometimes even more.

He was on his journey to the place he wanted to be; perfection. Even at a young age, he was pushed forward, pushed onwards to be perfect. To become that perfection that his parents wanted him to be.

The absence of love, the absence of comfort had turned him cold. It had turned his heart to ice and had warped his sense of right and wrong.

Nothing would ever come in his way when it was something he wanted, something he needed. Itachi would always get it. No matter what.

After years of gruelling training and studying, it had become too much –even for Itachi- and he needed an extra source of help. That was when he turned to the drugs. They had kept him alert and they had kept him awake, but it changed him.

It changed the Itachi that his parents knew. He was someone else, almost as if someone had taken refuge in his body.

Itachi had become more determined then. To be brilliant at everything he did. Whether it was school, sports, business, fighting – everything.

His parents had noticed the change in their son and had slowly started to neglect him, to stop giving him all of the attention.

They would spend all of their time and energy wasted on Sasuke. Itachi hated it. He hated it more than he hated not being perfect. He despised the fact that he wasn't being noticed, he despised the fact that his little brother would receive all of their attention.

It maddened him.

He noticed the way his parents would treat Sasuke, the way they would tell him they loved him and would always humour him when he did the smallest thing right. Not once had they raised their voice at their precious little angel.

Itachi was furious.

That was when he stopped regarding them as his family. Just burdens that needed to be rid of.

They came in the way of his path to perfection, to power.

He rid himself of the so called burdens that day, the day when he was finally seeing clearly and thinking straight. The day in which he found his purpose in life.

Sasuke was no obstacle, no set back. Just a boy. A boy who wasn't even worth his time.

But Itachi gained pleasure from seeing others suffer and he knew then that that was what he wanted to do with Sasuke.

To break, to destroy his little brother. The kid who stole the attention who gained the praise which he didn't deserve without even raising a finger.

He would play games with the boy's mind until he wished he was dead. Yes. That was much more fun.

--

The elder Uchiha removed the cancer stick from between his lips and released the breath he was holding. Smoke drifted upwards and dissolved into the air.

Kisame held out a large thick hand towards Itachi, who stubbed the end of the cigarette in his palm. The large man grinned and tightened his hand into a fist before ridding himself of the cigarette. Not bothering to check where it had fallen.

Itachi rose from his chair, raking a pale hand through his dark hair. (1) "Time to get to work Kisame. Enough games."

* * *

**(1) Holy shit, THAT RHYMED! **

**Corr, Itachi is so shexyyy.**

**He can stub his cig on my hand any day. Wait…that would hurt…Ok…erm…maybe not…**


End file.
